ICE Business Times, January 2018 by ICE Media Ltd.

Contents TIMES

06 From the Editor WORD OF MOUTH 08 State of Affairs 12 Around the World, By the Numbers 20 Banking Corner 128 Happening COLUMN 26 Shamsul Huq Zahid 87 Asaduzzaman SPECIAL REPORT 40 Gender Equality: the Quest for Efficiency through Male-Female Complementarity 66 Courageous Enterprising Optimistic: the women who are redefining the age old term 96 Ensuring Well-Being: Health Interventions During a Humanitarian Crisis INTERVIEWS 44 Anis A. Khan

Managing Director & CEO, Mutual Trust Bank Limited

48 Humayun Rashid

Managing Director & CEO, Energypac Power Generation Ltd.

52 Rahel Ahmed

Managing Director & CEO , Prime Bank

56 Sylvana Quader Sinha

Founder, Managing Director and CEO, Praava Health

62 Taslim Ahmed CEO, Unitrend

80 Shahagir Bakth Faruk NRB

84 Mofizur Rahman

Managing Director, NOVOAIR

Ushering in a new year with the dreams of a progressive nation. Photo: Unsplash

Contents TIMES

a global business magazine from bangladesh

TIMES

Vol. 8 No. 05 | January 2018

Publisher & Editor Director, International Publications Executive Director Managing Editor Assistant Editor Sub Editor Business Development Manager Designer Business Development

Finance & Accounts Sales & Distribution

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

Abul Khair Zeenat Chowdhury Nawshin Khair Tawhidur Rashid Shaikh Ashfaque Zaman Ishrat Jahan Asaduzzaman Sk. Yeahhia Md. Nizam Uddin Forhad Mohammad Imran Rezaul Haque Heron Md. Abdul Alim Md. Rubel Khan

Holding on to a traditional industry that is unique to our history. FEATURES 30 Lessons Learned: Dave McCaughan 34 Pearls of Wisdom 36 Beauty with the Artificial Brain 37 The Financial State of a Growing Nation: Bangladesh Going Forward 60 Breaking the Glass Ceiling 72 The Plug-In Policy: Applying Research to Reality 76 The NRB Hub: Connecting the Dots of Bangladeshis Across the Globe 92 The Missing Link 95 Sparks of the Youth: Working Towards Harnessing Energy 106 Home Grown Solutions: How traditional industries can adapt best practices to stay relevant 110 The Driving Edge 112 Ask and Ye Shall Find: The Right Questions to Find the Best Candidates 117 The Digital Revolution and the Digital Divide 120 Making Property Transactions Easier 121 The Lense that Captured a Changing Nation 122 Tech: Back to the Browser 124 Financing the Car of Your Dreams 125 New Bar of Craftsmanship 126 Innovations in Renal Medicine: A Conversation with Dr. Lye 127 Capital Market

This issueâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Photographs by Din M Shibly Kazi Mukul Eivan Sardar

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

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, 01615732425, 01759391168, 01850824294, 01711311256, 01726738970 Tel: 02 55035336-8, 09666773313

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

FROM THE EDITOR Despite the predictions of many skeptics, we have achieved a commendable growth of 7.23% in FY2017; a graduation from our 6% block. The notable progress is a reminder that continuity is a part of growth and our path to achieving the middle-income status though might seem difficult but not impossible. Nevertheless, we are only as good as our preparation against the worst. At the frontline of climate change, Bangladesh experienced a record of four cyclones last year. These calamities hampered the nationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s primary source of income and sustenance which is the agriculture sector. The shift in climate resulted in impeded food availability and crop yield. While complete food sufficiency is a principal of the plan, we have a long way to go. The nation boasts one of the lowest rates of food security in which every 4 out of 10 persons face food insecurity on a daily basis. With almost a fifth of our entire population undernourished, the nation is losing $1 billion in productivity every year. Furthermore, climate change alone can cause a 1.15% reduction in the GDP annually. In regards to this, our action must speak louder than words. While we should keep working on the diplomatic forefront for more development assistance from donors to mitigate the losses of climate change; investing more in research to fuel innovation in agriculture will be needed for a better yield. At the same time, we should bring those miscreants to book who created instability in the local farmersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; market. The research finding of South Asian Network on Economic Modeling (SANEM) indicates that hikes of rice price compelled around 520,000 people go below the poverty line. To avoid such disasters from occurring further, we need to fix the loose ends of our import strategy for food crop. Bangladesh proves to be a resilient nation with so many factors against us. We are the center of one of the largest humanitarian crises in recent times. Teknaf, the southernmost part of the nation, is housing an influx of 600,000 Rohingyas. These people have been denied fundamental rights for decades. Nevertheless, our government is taking the lead with many organizations and NGOs to ensure that their future is not as uncertain and brutal as their past. While we handle the crisis at our borders, we must also foresee the tide of a new election year that will impact the entire country in the years to come. When we look back a decade, there is cause for concern amongst the business communities and trade and commerce. The trading deficit for FY 2007-08 was $3,921 million compared to $2,734 million the year before (FY 2006-07). Therefore let us learn the lessons of our past and maintain political stability on the road to progress. Last but not least, to continue the private sector led economic progress, we must ensure that we have the right CEOs behind the steering. Though right now there are many expat CEOs rendering praiseworthy services in different industries, if we fail to nurture a breed of homegrown CEOs, we might lag behind in the race. For that, we need to identify locally available talent pool and train and empower them to become C-suite competent. Otherwise our hopes to become a developed nation by 2041 might nipped in the bud.

S TAT E O F A F FA I R S

Word of mouth Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina checking out a Gear VR while visiting the stalls at the 4-day Digital World Exposition 2017

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina meeting a troupe of Burn and Plastic Surgery professionals from Hungary, Germany and the Netherlands

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina attending the BGB Day 2017 parade

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina at the Graduation Ceremony of National Defense Course 2017 and Armed Forces War Course 2017

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina meeting H.E. Emmanuel Macron, President of France at the Elysee palace

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina unveiling a special stamp on the eve of National Victory Day 2017

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina attending the event to welcome H.E. Binali Yıldırım, the Turkish Prime Minister

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina recently called on the family of Late Mohiuddin Chowdhury, former Mayor of Chittagong. During this visit, she also extended financial helps to the families of the people who died at the stampede at the Kulkhani of the Mayor

Around the World

North Korea: New UN sanctions 'an act of war.' Bitcoin Plunges Nearly 20% in a Day Bitcoin faced one of its biggest tests in December, losing almost 20% of its value after the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest cryptocurrency reached a record high on 18 December. The digital currency plunged as much as 30% on the following Friday, before paring losses, as the weekâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s selloff extended to the fourth day. The weekly decline was the biggest in almost three years. Other cryptocurrencies also tumbled: ethereum dropped as much as 36%, and litecoin slumped as much as 43%, according to composite prices on Bloomberg. The losses represent a significant test for the cryptocurrency industry and the blockchain technology that underpins it, which have rapidly entered the mainstream in recent weeks.

North Korea has described the latest UN sanctions imposed on the country as an "act of war." A foreign ministry statement said the measures were tantamount to a total economic blockade, the official KCNA news agency reported. It added that strengthening North Korea's deterrence was the only way to frustrate the US. The UN Security Council imposed the new sanctions on Friday in response to Pyongyang's ballistic missile tests. The US-drafted resolution unanimously backed by all 15 Security Council members - includes measures to slash North Korea's petrol imports by up to 90%.

A Picture Says it All: 40% of Millenial Women Believe Instagram Is the Best Way to Reach Them

Millennial-focused publisher Bustle conducted some research to help brands understand those consumers a bit more. According to the findings, 81% of readers say social media is the most efficient way to reach them. Of those women, 40% of Bustle readers feel Instagram is the best and most effective social media outlet to connect. Additionally, 36% find brands through websites they trust, closely followed by 35% of women, who find brands in online articles and through email. When it comes to types of advertising, 57% of readers selected humor and social good as two top themes in brand marketing. 36% selected cause-related spots, followed by motivational places (33%) and real-life scenarios (30%).

Reading your Mind: Tools that are Making Ad Firms Psychic Challenging Year for Steelmakers in Bangladesh

Domestic steelmakers passed a challenging year for some factors including rising import costs, port congestion, lack of gas supply and restriction on transport of goods by 20-ton vehicles on the highways. The sector grew about 15% year-on-year in 2017. Domestic steel production, which was almost stagnant at 2.5 to 3 million tons a year between 2008 and 2014, rose in later years, leading millers to increase production capacity and go for backward integration. With about 7 million tons of capacity, the mills produced 5 to 5.5 million tons of steel in 2017, up from 4 to 4.5 million tons a year ago, said SK Masadul Alam Masud, former chairman of BARSMA. But despite having increased capacity, manufacturers could not take production to the expected level due to an inadequate supply of gas and electricity. Moreover, nervousness gripped the sector following the government's announcement to implement the new VAT law that sought to apply a 15% VAT from fiscal 2017-18 instead of the reduced rate that it paid at that time, which subsequently is feared to reduce the demand for steel products.

With advancements in technology, more and more advertisers are trying to tap into the unconscious to divine the invisible forces that drive our spending decisions. Using gadgets to track eye movements, computer maps of faces to capture a quick grin (approval) or squinting (anger), and sensors to measure perspiration or monitor brain activity, companies are mining consumers' raw emotions for information. Traditionally, ad firms have measured the success of their campaigns through consumer surveys, but that technique has its limits. The new methods recognize that our purchase decisions are driven by both rational and emotional factors, and reflect research showing the brain takes in information on different levels. They enable ad firms to capture many kinds of emotions and to be able to profile the emotions that are happening very granularly on a second by second basis. The technologies can help track if brands are maintaining their edge over competitors, and make ads more effective by determining what to highlight, for example, whether to emphasize the distress of allergy symptoms or the relief of treatment when pitching medications. And the techniques are being applied to other industries, such as retail, which is experimenting on ways to attract customers in the Amazon era.

Performance Over Speed: Apple’s Upgrade Have a New Focus

Apple finally admits that which we have all been guessing for quite some time now. Whenever a new upgrade comes along, the iPhone slows down if you choose to update it. However, the company has said that it does so to prolong the life of devices, rather than force you to upgrade. In a statement to The Verge it said: “Our goal is to deliver the best experience for customers, which includes overall performance and prolonging the life of their devices. Lithium-ion batteries become less capable of supplying peak current demands when in cold conditions, have a low battery charge or as they age over time, which can result in the device unexpectedly shutting down to protect its electronic components. Last year we released a feature for iPhone 6, iPhone 6s and iPhone SE to smooth out the instantaneous peaks only when needed to prevent the device from unexpectedly shutting down during these conditions. We’ve now extended that feature to iPhone 7 with iOS 11.2, and plan to add support for other products in the future.”

Women in Football: The Bangladeshi Team Makes its Mark

Recently the Bangladesh U-15 women’s team won the SAFF U-15 Women's Championship by defeating India 1-0 in the final, and the country’s cricket team’s senior players were quick to congratulate the winners. This victory is going to be a big stepping stone for our country’s women’s football and football in general. Mashrafe, Shakib, and Mushfiq saw this as a big victory as well and were just as proud of the girls as the rest of the nation is. All three of them have posted words of encouragement and appreciation and congratulated the U-15 team from their Facebook accounts.

$285 Million Cut in 2018-19 UN Operating Budget On Sunday night US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley announced a historic reduction in the U.N. biennial operating budget, saying that it was “a big step in the right direction.” Haley said, “The inefficiency and overspending of the United Nations are well known, we will no longer let the generosity of the American people be taken advantage of or remain unchecked.” The U.N. budget now covers a two-year period, beginning in January of an even-numbered year. The United States, a country that already pays about 22% of the U.N.’s budget, or roughly $3.3 billion, was seeking a $250 million cut to the U.N. budget for 2018-19. This was on top of $200 million in savings already proposed by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Machines Making a Mark: How Human Labor is Being Replaced

Investing in Data and Cutting-Edge Technology: How Sephora Stays Ahead of the Game

While brick-and-mortar shopping for all retailers is shrinking, Sephora continues to bet big on marrying the physical retail experience with digital twists in its more than 400 stores in the US Sephora isn’t your mother’s makeup company; it’s your modern tech company. For example, an in-store program called Color IQ uses digital devices to scan someone’s skin to find the right shade for foundation, concealer, lip and powder product recommendations. On the digital side, Sephora’s innovation lab in San Francisco is tooling with an artificial intelligence feature dubbed Virtual Artist within its mobile app that uses facial recognition to virtually try on makeup products. There’s also a digital platform called Beauty Insider Community that allows loyalty program members to share reviews, photos and talk about products with each other. Unlike Amazon—where brands receive limited data and little to no control over the tech giant’s algorithm that places products on pages—Sephora’s experiences squarely keep consumers within its apps and sites, giving the brand tons of data and the ability to control which products someone is recommended.

With the advent of the technological boom, it was only a matter of time that machines would start replacing humans. While it seemed like phenomena of the West, Bangladesh is not far behind anymore. The RMG sector of our country is now seeing machines make a lot of the processes (done by workers) redundant. In 2013, the total number of garment workers in Bangladesh stood at 4.4 million, which fell to 3.6 million now, said Syed Sultan Uddin Ahmed, executive director of the Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies. One machine can make at least ten workers in a factory redundant, according to Ahmed. However, even though machines have successfully replaced the unskilled/semi-skilled workers, the skilled workers still prevail and continue to be employed by the factories.

Lamborghini Launches the World’s First Super SUV: Urus

Supercar manufacturer Lamborghini joins the growing SUV market with its $200,000 Lamborghini Urus which will be the world’s fastest SUV, reportedly clocking a top speed of 189 mph, about two miles faster than the reigning champion, the $229,100 Bentley Bentayga. Lamborghini launched the long-awaited Urus in December at its headquarters in Santa’Agata, Italy. Speaking to a 700-person crowd that included Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, Lamborghini CEO Stefano Domenicali called the launch “a historical moment for our company.” The Urus marks a return to SUVs for Lamborghini, which discontinued its Hummer-like LM002 off-roader nearly 25 years ago. Unlike the other two models in Lamborghini’s current lineup – the two-seater Aventador and Huracan coupes – the Urus can seat up to five and is expected to appeal to new customers around the world who are looking for a vehicle more versatile than a racetrack-ready sports car. With its optional 23-inch wheels, 650-horsepower twin-turbo V8 engine, and half-dozen customizable drive modes, the Urus can feel equally at home on or off the road. Its four-wheel drive system and adaptive air suspension help the SUV conquer earth, gravel, and stone like a rally car or thrive on low-grip conditions like snow or ice. The Urus puts up impressive figures for an SUV: Lamborghini says it will reach 62 mph in 3.6 seconds and 124 mph in 12.8 seconds. Rear-wheel steering lends the feel of a shorter, more agile wheelbase, while its eight-speed transmission exploits maximum power.

BANKING CORNER

Word of mouth A closing ceremony of syndicated deal of Tk 430 Million for Feiya Auto Bricks was held in Dhaka recently, which was organized by Meridian Finance as mandated lead arranger & agent. Here participant of the syndication are BIFFL, IDCOL, Meridian Finance & Union Capital Ltd. Md. Delowar Hossain Khan, MD of Feiya Auto Bricks Ltd; Irteza A Khan, CEO & MD of Meridian Finance; S.M Formanul Islam, ED & CEO of BIFFL and S. M. Monirul Islam, Deputy CEO of IDCOL were present in the ceremony

Citi Foundation recently partnered with Bangladesh Red Crescent Society to rehabilitate flood-affected families and contributed $100,000 to support 3,000 families from low-income populations based in North Bangladesh

BRAC Bank Limited has partnered with Bangladesh Reconditioned Vehicles Importers & Dealers Association (BARVIDA). Under this partnership, BRAC Bank will provide support to organize annual general meeting and Family Get Together of the association. Md. Habib Ullah Dawn, President, BARVIDA, and Selim R. F. Hussain, Managing Director & CEO, BRAC Bank, were seen in the photograph. A. K. Joaddar, Deputy Managing Director & CFO; Nazmur Rahim, Head of Retail Banking; Kyser Hamid, Head of Retail Sales, BRAC Bank, were also present at the ceremony held at BRAC Bank Head Office

Jamuna Bank recently opened its new branch at Dhunot, Bagura

National Bank Limited opened its 196th branch at Rahmatpur Bazar in Barisal, on Sunday, the 24th of December, 2017. On behalf of the Director and Chairperson of the Executive Committee of the bank, Parveen Haque Sikder, the Deputy Managing Director of the bank & Head of HRD Shah Syed Abdul Bari and Law Consultant of the bank Miah Muhammad Ali Akbar Azizee formally inaugurated the branch by cutting ribbon

Managing Director and Head of Corporate Banking Asia Pacific Gerald Keefe of Citi Bank was recently in Bangladesh. During the visit Gerald met key clients of the bank and reviewed Citi's potential for further growth in Bangladesh

NRB Commercial Bank Limited has opened its 60th Branch located at Helal Tower, Bangabandhu Sarani on 24 December, 2017 with state of the art banking services. Honorable Member of Parliament and President of Bangladesh Cricket Board Nazmul Hasan Papon inaugurated 60th branch of the bank

Column

THE YEARLY ROUND UP:

THE 2017 ECONOMY

By Shamsul Huq Zahid n a notable growth track with a few aberrations, the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s economy was on a dynamic growth path in the calendar year 2017. It was in line with the trend witnessed in the recent years. However, it encountered a few hindrances with the governance failure in the banking sector topping the list. Inflationary pressure in the final months of the year was a cause of concern for both consumers and the government; it affected the latter more due to next general elections. Two consecutive floods, including the flash flood in Haor areas, caused substantial damage to major rice crops which contributed to the rise in rice prices to an all-time high. However, Ministry of Food's rash decision making about food imports was mostly responsible for the deterioration of the food price situation. Most macro indicators were stable in 2017, but not to the extent seen in the preceding years. There were a few exceptions. Debt, both external and internal, continued to be sustainable with fiscal deficits remaining at the projected level of 5.0%.

THE WRITER

I S A S E N I O R 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

The overall balance of payments (BoP), however, was in the negative ($225 million at the end of October last compared to a surplus of $2.05 billion a year back) as the current account faced massive deficits of $3.311 billion. The trade deficit widened further to $5.8 billion during July-October period of FY 18 compared to that of $2.8 billion during the corresponding period of last fiscal. A higher FDI flow and less pressure on foreign debt repayments helped the financial account remain at a comfortable level. At the end of last October, it had a surplus of $2.67 billion. The accumulation of reserves also took place at a slow pace in the year under review because of lackluster export performance and decline in remittance earning. The reserve was over $33 billion at the end of October 2017. After a long time, the real effective exchange rate of Bangladesh taka vis-Ă -vis the greenback depreciated providing some incentive to the exporters and the remittance senders. However, imported goods, including essential ones, stood to be costlier by the latest development. Overall investment in the financial year 2016-17 was on track with an increase in the investment rates of both private and public sectors. The increase in investment was higher in the case of the public sector that is now implementing some mega projects, including the much-hyped Padma Bridge. However, the situation in 2017 appears to be slightly different. The pace of implementation of Padma Bridge has lately slowed down mainly due to problems with designs of a good number of its main piers. The Padma Bridge execution slowdown would invariably have a negative impact on the public sector expenditure during fiscal 2018.

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

The private sector credit growth during the year was healthy compared to that of the previous years. Involvement of the private sector in large infrastructure projects, higher import of raw materials and capital machinery and banks’ focus on personal and SME financing helped private sector credit growth. The central bank also took a few credit-boosting initiatives during the year under review. But that was not true in the case of the public sector as the credit growth was somewhat negative against the projection made in the budget for the current financial year. The government got plenty of liquid cash from the sale of its high-interesting bearing savings tools. So, it showed little interest in mopping up resources through treasury bills and bond auctions. But the interest burden on account of savings tools continued to rise throughout the year. Inflation that had declined, to some extent, in the initial months of 2017, started climbing and reached a two-year high of 6.12% in September. The rise in food inflation, mainly due to a surge in rice and vegetable prices, was responsible for the uptick in the overall inflation. However, there were signs of moderation in the last three months of the year. But onion and rice prices surged tremendously. The rice prices recorded increase even during the harvesting of Aman, a significant rice crop. The government was found to be as aggressive as before in setting its revenue mobilization target, particularly in the case of tax receipts, for the FY 2018. The aggregate revenue collection target has been set at Tk 2.48 trillion for the fiscal, expecting a robust 34% growth over the previous fiscal’s collection of Tk 1.85 trillion. The actual collection by the National Board of Revenue (NBR) during the first five months of the current fiscal missed the target by Tk 95 billion. Structural deficiencies in revenue mobilization were mostly responsible. Though some reforms are on the cards, their implementation remains to be unusually slow. The government is now encountering an unforeseen problem, the influx of Rohingyas from neighboring Myanmar. More than 700,000 Rohingyas have taken refuge in Bangladesh to

Country’s exports grew at only 1.7% in the fiscal year 2018. On the other hand, the trend in the first half of the current FY was a bit better. During the first four months of FY 2018, the export growth was 7.63% over that of the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.

escape persecution by the Myanmar military. The influx of Rohingyas has become a budgetary burden on the government as the cost of feeding and meeting other essential requirements of the refugees is quite high. Though international aid is pouring in, its availability remains uncertain over a more extended period. The development expenditure in the first half was almost on a par with that made in the corresponding period of the previous years. The utilization of resources allocated in the annual development programmes (ADPs) in the first half of any financial year has always been lower than expected. It remains so even until the third quarter of a fiscal. However, something magical happens in the final quarter. More than 60% of the ADP is implemented during that quarter! Nevertheless, the ADP execution rate might be lower this time since the execution of a very cost-intensive project, the Padma Bridge, slowed down because of fault in the design of its central piers. The government, however, has intensified a few key projects, including large power plants, keeping in view the next general election which is scheduled for the latter part of 2018. The private sector has been the prime mover in the power and energy sector. Despite the improvement in power situation, consumers are found to be annoyed over the recent hike in power tariff. They tend to believe that power sector has been made hostage to a few profit-hungry sponsors of rental power plants. Country’s exports grew at only 1.7% in the fiscal year 2018. On the other hand, the trend in the first half of the current FY was a bit better. During the first four months of FY 2018, the export growth was 7.63% over that of the corresponding period of the previous fiscal. The capital market traversed in the ‘on-again, off-again’ path throughout the year. There were attempts to create an artificial surge in stock prices in the second half of the year. But it could not be sustained for long because of the absence of a sufficient number of genuine and long-term investors and quality issues. A few developments in the banking sector including deteriorating financial health some third generation banks, management change of some private banks under mysterious circumstances and surge in soured assets of banks were listed as major sore points in an economy that has been growing at a decent pace. Nonetheless, some skeptics point to the absence to, what they describe, ‘feel good’ element in the economy, while expressing doubts about the quality of the data dished out by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), the national statistical organization, on economic growth performance.

Lessons Learned

“No matter how good you are there is always something market research will teach you.” DAVE MCCAUGHAN Co-Founder & Chairman Marketing Futures

LESSON 4: 4,000% ROI. YOU ARE JUST A BAD MANAGER IF YOU ARE NOT SPENDING MORE ON RESEARCH. First, let’s be clear: you should NOT do the market research yourself and rewind to lesson no 1 in this series (the September issue) “You are NOT normal.” Most marketers often come with the preconceived notion of “well I know” based on their experience, which is the worst kind of mistake on their part. In due course of time I have worked and engaged with hundreds of senior marketers, business people and agency executives from some of the world’s best companies and the only consistency I learned about them was that they all knew less than they thought about the people they wanted as their consumers. Another consistency was that the successful ones loved and spent a lot of time understanding market research. And while I applaud managers who go out and spend time personally interviewing, discussing things and observing their potential consumer, they have a natural bias to read into every encounter only noticing what they think is right. It is excellent to observe “normal” people in their real-world environment. So, you should go around and watch focus groups, linger around and spend time with your potential customers. However, you must also make sure, that real decisions are based on proper, professionally managed, neutral market research. Market research is NOT expensive. In fact, probably no other investment in your business can be equivalent to the returns of proper market research. Recently I had the chance to interview Simon Chadwick for my podcast series MR Realities where I talk to the world’s leading market research authorities about what makes a good research (Check out the link to listen to all the other podcasts in the series, https://bibliosexual.weebly.com/

mr-realities.html). Simon is the editor of one of the leading industry magazine, Research World, and a leading authority on the value of proper research. His explanation of how recent studies in the USA showed that incorporating adequately managed market research had an average return on investment of nearly 4,000%, inevitably blew me away. Can you risk NOT doing independent, quality research of that magnitude? I’ve been quite lucky over the years. A long time ago when I first joined the advertising world in my home city of Sydney, I was lucky to meet and spend time talking to Australia’s “father of social research,” a fellow named Hugh Mackay. Hugh was a master at breaking down what were the key issues in life for all sorts of people and what that meant to brands. I was privileged to work with research agencies hired by my clients, which were leading the way as to how modern market research impacted decision making. Later again being lucky I have been asked to join and lead many marketing research conferences around the world. The most important learning from all that luck was ‘the better the quality of the research done, the more chance a marketer has of success.’ When I first moved to Asia in 1996, part of my role was to launch the first ongoing qualitative market research program in the region. Ten countries, fifteen cities, qualitative discussions with “normal people” about their lives at least once a month, which later expanded to other regions. The core markets in Southeast Asia, India and yes Bangladesh kept up versions of the program for nearly seventeen years. The program soon became a sounding board and learning tool for many marketing campaigns as we

developed for companies like Coca-Cola, Nestle, L’Oreal, Johnson & Johnson, and MasterCard. We were able to make sure that by using professional standards and constant independent analysis clients were told what mattered to people. And that, as we said in Lesson 2, is all that matters. The types of research you do can vary greatly depending on what you need to know, check, discover like the one I have been doing in the last two years. I have been re-educating myself to learn to use machine learning platforms that do market research across the internet by neutral analysis of linguistics. More on that later. For now though what brings us to this lesson is: A lot of marketers and business people in Bangladesh are thinking too little, or overlooking the fact of what matters. They are just robbing themselves, and their investors by not paying for quality learning and analyzing the traits of the people who you want should buy your product or service constantly.

NO.4 DON’T ASSUME, GET A PROFESSIONAL TO ASK LESSONS LEARNED IS A SERIES FROM MARKETING FUTURES WHERE CO-CHAIRMAN DAVE MCCAUGHAN SHARES SOME OF HIS EXPERIENCE FROM THREE DECADES LEADING THE MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS FOR MAJOR INTERNATIONAL BRANDS ACROSS ASIA. For more information regarding Marketing Futures please email us at marketingfuturesbd@gmail.com follow us at www.facebook.com/marketingfuturesbd Marketing Futures is an Inititaive of Ideamax Creatives Limited

Advice Squad

Pearls of Wisdom

By Meshquat UL Anowar

Every year, Harvard Business Review ranks the best CEO in the world. While we wish we could osmotically inherit their brain power, ICE Business Times has taken of the wise words from the cream of the crop to enlighten the aspiring CEOs and corporates.

PABLO ISLA | INDITEX “If you do not put passion in what you do, it is very difficult to achieve results”

& Zurana Zayan Rodoshi

MARK PARKER | NIKE

“The best innovation comes from inclusive work environments that foster diverse ideas, nurture people with diverse talent and backgrounds, and create strong relationships with diverse communities.”

JENSEN HUANG | NVIDIA “First of all, AI(Artificial Intelligence) is going to infuse all of software. AI is going to eat software and it’s going to be in every aspect of software.”

MARTIN SORRELL | WPP

“If you ask what keeps me up at night, it's the pressure in the system forcing us to do all sorts of things. Content, data and technology are forcing us to think about business in a very different way.”

ELMAR DEGENHART | CONTINENTAL

“After all, quality creates trust – and trust creates orders. In short, we need to constantly become better and better at the high level we are already operating at.”

BERNARD ARNAULT | LVMH “When you are on the management side, you still have to understand the artistic sensibility so that there is a dialogue with the creative side.”

JACQUES ASCHENBROICH | VALEO “You must not be better than your neighbors. You have to be better than the best.”

MARTIN BOUYGUES | BOUYGUES “Not everything is for sale, not everything is about money.”

RICHARD COUSINS | COMPASS “ I hope our legacy encompass would be sustainable growth, but with the highest standards of integrity underpinned by great management.”

JOHAN THIJS | KBC

“We have a common corporate culture called PEARL that we have been pushing quite a lot throughout our group since 2012. PEARL is an acronym. It stands for Performance, Empowerment, Accountability, Responsiveness and Local Embeddedness, and it has been an important factor in achieving MARC BENIOFF | strong SALESFORCE.COM results.” “Keep in mind that the landscape is always changing; you must always examine what’s working, evolve your ideas, and change the way you do things.”

CARLOS BRITO | ANHEUSERBUSCH INBEV

“It's not about me and my ego – it's about the company building something that’s bigger than us, that is going to be here for hundreds of years.”

WES BUSH | NORTHROP GRUMMAN

“I'm excited about growing our company with what we have, we get the biggest return on the things we do inside the company.”

FLORENTINO PÉREZ RODRÍGUEZ | ACS

"Madrid is the most valuable club in the world and all we need is to continue progressing from the demand. Reaching the semifinals does not seem enough. We have to work to reach the final and win the European Cup."

BENOIT POTIER | AIR LIQUIDE “All together a connected organization is engaged in its environment and anticipates the needs of its customers and patients. The dialogue with them fuels the development of new ideas and the creation of shared values.”

LARS RASMUSSEN | COLOPLAST

“Growth and prosperity. These are the blocks with which we must build our welfare society.”

BERNARD CHARLES | DASSAULT SYSTEMES “The most important thing about Dassault Systèmes in America is about people. It’s about making them successful in the future work life, and that’s our motivation.”

HISASHI LETSUGU | SYSMEX «Will you tell us the hardest thing you have experienced as chairman and CEO of Sysmex? » L : “I personally do not regard my efforts as a challenging experience. It was fortunate that I faced the major turning point in the economic environment in a timely manner.”

ANDERS RUNEVAD | VESTAS

«Hybrid projects are still few and small, but the ambition is to bring them up to utility-scale.» R: “We think this is a great opportunity to take the first step and learn where the opportunities are. We see them clearly on paper, but we need to realise them in practice.”

SUH KYUNG-BAE | AMOREPACIFIC

“I believe the market is a living organism always in constant change. The important key is the company’s ability to respond rapidly to these changes in the market.” www.ibtbd.net

Robotics

Beauty with the Artificial Brain Sophia the robot comes to Dhaka.

By Ishrat Jahan From tech-enthusiasts to curious spectators, the revolutionary robot, Sophia, brought much excitement to Bangladesh this winter. The robot has been in the global headlines for quite some time because it acquired Saudi Arabian citizenship. It was in the event ‘Digital World 2017’ where Sophia was unveiled in front of the mass audience. Continued speculations and interests took the crowd by a wild storm, and it was proven when the conference hall overflowed with hundred of of curious eyes. This particular segment of the event initiated by David Hanson taking the stage. He is the founder and chief executive officer of Hanson Robotics, the company that has successfully built this revolutionary robot. Excited and enthusiastic, Hanson spoke about the immense

prospect that Bangladesh has on the field of technology and how Bangladeshi developers can surpass Sophia by using the resources of the open platform provided by his company. He detailed the future and the prospect of robotics, “We are getting one step closer to the future every day. And as times are passing by, these machines are getting more advanced. However, it is about time we allow these machines the capability to understand us and thus help them to operate more efficiently. This is not just applicable for Sophia, but for every other artificial intelligence-equipped robots in the world.” Hanson concluded his speech with an invitation to everyone to create a positive, better world where there will be a significant presence of such

intelligent machines. Sophia was introduced during the latter part of the program. The humanoid robot came to the stage while the roof tore apart with applauds. No sooner the massive uproar dimmed down a bit Sophia decided to greet everyone by telling her whereabouts to the audience, “I am right now in Dhaka, the capital of the beautiful country named Bangladesh.” She then continued to have an engaging conversation with the host and came up with few anecdotes as well. From light-hearted questions to serious ones, the robot answered them all with utmost perfection. When ironically asked about the importance of artificial intelligence to her, she replied quite inquisitively, “The best scenario will be a partnership between the creativity of humans and the labor of robots – working together to create a better tomorrow.” The conversation went further as the Honorable ICT Minister of the country Zunaed Ahmed Palak joined her. They went on to talk about the possibilities of creating robots like her in Bangladesh as well. In a country where the technology industry is often

considered to be backdated compared to its neighbors, the appearance of such a robot inevitably created a ripple in the minds of many. Social media was filled not only with posts about Sophia but also by posts where many voiced their concerns about the dire needs of engineering students to venture out into the world of modern technology. In many cases, many were even seen sharing videos of similar robotics displays done by young Bangladeshi students in the past. Although entirely new in Bangladesh, artificial intelligence has been on the front lines of the technology realm for quite some time. With robots, increasingly becoming advanced and being able to undertake tasks that are more sophisticated, some engineers have taken it a notch further and have designed technologies by which robots can learn things from its surroundings; similar to how a young human toddler garners information while growing up. This change has happened possibly because of Artificial Intelligence. While many reputed tech-visionaries has shown concerns about the massive rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI), some prefer to have varied opinions. Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX, has openly discussed his fears that AI robots pose one of the biggest threats to human civilization. The massive speculation of robots replacing human employees from several industries in the very near future resonates his thoughts. Nevertheless, whether it is a boon or a bane, Sophia’s visit to Dhaka surely did its job in sparking flares of innovation in the minds of the youth. The day might not be very far away when a young Bangladeshi developer will create the most sophisticated AI robot in the world.

Economic Forecast

THE FINANCIAL STATE OF A GROWING NATION

Bangladesh Going Forward By Forrest Cookson

EXPECTATIONS FROM THE ECONOMY AND REASONABLE PLANNING ASSUMPTIONS FOR BUSINESSES IN THE COMING YEAR.

GDP GROWTH OVER THE YEARS: Bangladesh has seen a steady growth of approximately 6% between the years of 2012-15. The nation experience a growth of

7.1% in 2016 and 7.2% in 2017 The dominant event in the coming year is the Parliamentary election that is scheduled to be held the end of 2018 or early 2019. There is some speculation that there may be an early election, but this seems to be unlikely. Nevertheless, the year will be full of preparation for the vote and political arguments about the election time government, the role of the military at election time and so forth. The economy expanding at 7% per annum will continue on this track. The acceleration of growth in the US, the EU, and Japan will all lead to increased demand for garments. Production capacity will increase with the availability of more natural gas from LNG imports, as demands increase from foreign buyers Bangladesh manufacturers will be able to meet the production requirements. The garment industry should improve steadily throughout 2018, exceeding Government export targets. The non-garment exports have been proliferating and this should accelerate further

with the weakening of the exchange rate. Total exports should increase at 8-10% in dollar terms in 2018 over 2017. Remittances will increase in 2018 compared to the previous year. Increased economic activity in the Middle East and stronger growth in Malaysia will contribute to this. Despite the improved earnings from exports and remittances, the current account will deteriorate. This dynamic will arise from the increases in imports to meet the growing needs of a 7% growth economy, the increasing investments in infrastructure and manufacturing. Oil prices will increase averaging $65 /barrel adding to the import costs. Moreover, megaprojects will accelerate their work progress growing imports. All of this will increase the current account deficit and probably lead to a small decline in foreign exchange reserves by the end of the year. By the end of 2018, the taka will have depreciated to about Tk 86-89/US dollar. The weaker taka will have a substantial impact increasing exports

THE ECONOMY EXPANDING AT 7% PER ANNUM WILL CONTINUE ON THIS TRACK. THE ACCELERATION OF GROWTH IN THE USA, THE EU, AND JAPAN ALL WILL LEAD TO INCREASED DEMAND FOR GARMENTS. PRODUCTION CAPACITY WILL INCREASE WITH THE AVAILABILITY OF MORE NATURAL GAS FROM LNG IMPORTS, AS DEMANDS INCREASE FROM FOREIGN BUYERS BANGLADESH MANUFACTURERS WILL BE ABLE TO MEET THE PRODUCTION REQUIREMENTS.

and remittance flows Bangladesh Bank will not be prepared to prevent this depreciation, and as a result, the reserve position will only decline by about $1 billion. In managing the economy, the Government will maintain a deficit for FY18/19 less than 4% of GDP. Food prices will rise from an appreciating Indian Rupee and a depreciating Bangladesh Taka. However, there will be stronger economic conditions on the farms, and there will be plenty of food. Non-food prices will also rise due to the taka depreciation and increases in the dollar prices of many export goods. Export prices in dollars for products from China will increase with Chinaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s declining international competitiveness. And rental rates for worker housing will rise significantly. Rising prices will cause pressure for increased wages. The garment worker minimum wages will be increased substantially. Despite this, we should expect labor disturbances to grow in extent as the year goes on.

BUSINESS PERSPECTIVE: Microenterprise, household enterprises and temporary establishments consist of 98% of economic units and 50% of jobs.

INFLATION ON THE RISE:

The country experienced a

5.4%

inflation in 2017, this percentage is predicted to increase to 6% next year.

The National Landscape Scenario

Higher agricultural prices and diversified production will bring prosperity to rural areas. Bangladesh businesses will find demands from small towns and villages will rise. Rural households will receive large remittances coming to more than $20 billion when we count both formal and informal remittances. Internal remittances from the RMG workers will increase. Continuing rural prosperity and expanding access to electricity will lead to intense demands for household fans, power pumps for household water supply, refrigerators, bicycles, motorcycles, larger and better television sets, smartphones, medicine and medical care. The private sector elementary education system will expand rapidly serving the thirst for quality education. The world perceptions of rural households will continue to develop quickly with vast

THE CAPITAL EDGE:

Dhaka accounts for of the industry jobs and

45% 37%

of service jobs.

communication networks spreading news both family and national. The spread of electricity connections will continue and the number of outages per day will decline with some progress in distribution. There will be high demand for better delivery of water to households. After electricity and refrigerators, better water and sanitary facilities become the priority of the household. The remarkable transformation of rural Bangladesh will continue. Business opportunities in the district and Upazila towns will be stronger. The urban areas will find more stressful conditions with rising housing prices, more significant impact of inflation on household budgets, and increasing stress on infrastructure. The transport congestion in Chittagong and Dhaka will continue to increase. Time spent in getting to work will increase, and there will be a dampening impact on the urban life of the traffic delays and discomfort associated with long periods in buses, CNGs, etc. Ride-sharing companies will

do very well, and the increase of vehicles committed to these services will increase. Little progress will be made on significant projects to improve urban transport. However, the diversity of goods and services available to the urban household will expand. Water and cooking fuel will continue as major problems with limited success and with weak prospects for improvement. Education systems will continue to make slow progress, but public pressure for improvements will drive both the government and the private schools. People want their children to have a good education and are becoming increasingly informed as to the shortcoming of the school systems and demanding change. Life in urban areas is constrained by the tremendous growth of the great cities and the chaos of conditions one encounter. There will be some difficulties in the banking sector arising from rising levels of nonperforming loans with greater pressure on performing their duties of

solid intermediation. There is much more effort to limit scams and making of poor loans in the banks, but there is a lot of pain before the banking sector is in a more stable condition. There remain two major problems for which progress seems unsatisfactory; they are reducing population growth and implementing a meaningful urban development program. It is essential that the future generation believes in bringing the total fertility rate below 2 to slow down and eventually peak the size of the population. The problems arising from urbanization concentrating in one city are evident to all, but little progress has been made in changing the dynamics of urban growth.

Sources: Asian Development Bank, World Bank

www.ibtbd.net

Reflections

Gender Equality

THE QUEST FOR EFFICIENCY THROUGH MALE-FEMALE COMPLEMENTARITY

IN THE REALM OF CORPORATE LEADERSHIP

By Syed Naquib Muslim, Ph.D.

The myth, ‘Leaders are born,’ still haunts many. Anthony Smith adds another: “Leadership is not for everyone, nor should it be.” When designated male leaders cannot lead properly, a question naturally sneaks into the public mind: Can women redeem leadership responsibility in corporate entities?

Female Leaders:

A Global Scenario Today, societies everywhere show male superiority in the corporate arena. Although men and women are locked in a symbiotic relationship, societies remain male-dominated, and patriarchal indisposition. America that staunchly advocates women’s empowerment still seems conservative in appointing women to senior positions in a big corporate body. According to Kanter,

Dr. Syed Naquib Muslim is a member of BCS (Administration) and worked as a Secretary to GoB. He now lectures on HRM and Business English at a few reputed universities and has authored 150 essays and 18 books.

“Women are stuck in the lower echelons of America corporations.” A study in America reveals that 85% of Fortune 500 CEOs are male. Kanter exposes, women often find themselves alone among male colleagues. For example, twenty women are seen in a three-hundred person sales force. The reality that women are not in the workforce is evident in the most gender-egalitarian nations, Sweden; only 4% of the head of boards in corporate organizations are women. However, the male

www.ibtbd.net

mindset seems to be altering. Research has shown that women are becoming a significant part of the workforce and the USA is an inspiring example. Meg Whitman is heading Hewlett-Packard, one of the largest PC producers. She has led the company in such a way that HP has attained “sustained profitable growth.” Mary Barra has become the Chairman and CEO of General Motors. Obama adopted a gender-neutral recruitment policy; he recruited a woman to protect his life, and also inducted women in the male-dominated Secret Service and other politically

sensitive positions. Across the ocean, in China, 40% of private business entities are owned by women. Furthermore, women are contributing to the country’s GDP by creating industries. This dynamic is surfacing across the world. In India, a woman named Gorla Rohini has been appointed Chief Justice for the first time in the Delhi High Court. A politically conservative country like Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is adopting a liberal policy about women. For the first time, a woman has been approved to head National Commercial Bank Capital, a top investment bank. Reem

Al-Faisal, a Saudi princess, suggests that although there is still a long way to go, women comprise 20% of the Shura Council. We also see progress in our nation. Salima Ahmed has assumed the position of the Vice-chairperson of Nitol-Niloy Group and has been able to employ hundreds of female workers. Ayesha Arefin Tumpa of Bangladesh has invented the mechanism of making artificial lungs. Women have begun to join the security forces since 2001. Many women are being recruited as drivers by private enterprises.

JOBS WHERE WOMEN MAKE MORE THAN MEN

THE BIG WIG IN THE BOARDROOM The vital partnership between men and women for efficient corporate management can be strengthened if we harness the human resources and potencies women have. According to Mckinsey, advancing women’s equality can lead to $12 trillion in global growth. Diversity springing from men and women lead to better decisions, new products, and new perspectives. Women must be empowered through a systematic process of education and training. The deficiencies of women can be adjusted through an intensive training on the following areas-a. interpersonal skills b. decision-making skills c. the art of negotiation

INDUSTRIES OUT OF BALANCE

Education and training will enable women to overcome the perceived deficiencies at their workplaces and to integrate the characteristics of males with theirs. Male and females must appreciate the fact that together they provide a balanced, pragmatic, and gender-intelligent leadership. A women’s presence as a corporate leaders is a complementary requirement.

Neuroscientists have discovered male and female brains function in different manners because 'there is 15 to 20% more blood flow in a woman’s brain and a man’s at any given time.' This science causes the difference in approaches to paying attention or in completing a task.

Traits of the Trade Are Women Naturally Better Leaders? Traditional roles dictate that women are suitable for jobs like cooking, housekeeping, and nursing. The irony is that males are working in these positions at international hotels and first-rate hospitals. A woman’s economic dependence upon men has allowed men to make the other gender subordinates and marginalize their social status. Men are more egocentric than women and this tendency springs from a sense of superiority of their physical strength. We must consider the attributes of an efficient leader; these include adaptability, sympathy, empathy, compassion, tolerance, affection, love, hospitality, protectiveness, self-preserving tendency, frugality, innovativeness, forbearance, tenderness, and civility. These qualities are associated and honed by women. Women everywhere are considered symbols of forbearance; they are noted for three Ps: patience, persuasion, and perseverance. Men being

prone to adventures and exploits do not tend to foresee the perils. They focus on one task whereas women excel in rapport-building and morale-raising activities. Studies reveal that women enjoy solving corporate problems in a team, and in doing so, they interact and communicate pleasantly with team members. This quality enables them to harness human resources productively. Women inherently hold a unifying force that fosters cohesion in team members. Their inner urge to survive compels them to work with commitment. That is why Smith states, “Women have all of the tools to be leaders. So do men.” Thus it can be noted that women leaders are relations-oriented whereas male leaders are results-oriented.

Picking at the Brain Neuro-biologists believe that women’s brain tends to link the left hemisphere with the right brain; the left is associated with logical while the right with an intuition which is related to rational thinking. This the reasons why they perform

better in intuitive exercises. A question might arise – “What is intuition?” A plain way to answer is ---‘Intuition is thinking without thinking’. Gurian and Annis believe women “have a greater comparative ability to hear words and to transfer what they hear, read”. They are better at multitasking, and they take workplaces as ‘extended part’ of their families. Women’s self-preserving tendency is extended to the corporate body, and they tend to protect the company’s interest. Neuroscientists have discovered male and female brains function in different manners because 'there is 15 to 20% more blood flow in a woman’s brain and a man’s at any given time.' This science causes the difference in approaches to paying attention or in completing a task.

depend on males for critical decisions, and Smith reminds us, ”Leadership is a function of skill and will.” Studies reveal that women have emotional intelligence, but they lack the confidence to lead. Many view women as less prompt, and less accessible. Therefore, a delay is the natural outcome in decision-making. Male supervisors allege, even if women leaders can make critical decisions, they cannot stick to them; assertiveness is lacking in them. Moreover, they cannot lead big companies. At times, women are described as less proactive, inert, introvert for which they cannot perform leadership functions efficiently. They are more reactive which stems from a sense of insecurity and of powerlessness in a male-dominated environment.

The Gender Dynamic Attributes that women mostly lack are an enterprising or risk-taking spirit, and aggressive mentality. They are flexible, and they cannot easily elicit compliance of male subordinates. They tend to

Sources: McKinsey, Business Insider & World Economic Forum

www.ibtbd.net

Interview

Anis A. Khan

Managing Director & CEO Mutual Trust Bank Limited

Anis A. Khan, a Fellow of the Institute of Bankers Bangladesh (IBB), has had 35 years of experience and training in banking, capital markets, management, and leadership practices. Anis currently serves as the Vice Chairman of the Industrial & Infrastructure Development Finance Company Limited (IIDFC), Director of BD Ventures Limited, Independent Director and Chairman of the Board Audit Committee of Berger Paints Bangladesh Limited (BPBL) and Vice President of Bangladesh Association of Publicly Listed Companies (BAPLC). He is the recipient of numerous accolades including the ‘Business & Entrepreneur Excellence Award 2016’. He was recognized as the ‘Inspirational Business Leader of the Year,’ at a ceremony held in London, United Kingdom and which was organized by the UK Bangladesh Catalysts of Commerce & Industry (UKBCCI) on 20 November 2016. He is the Immediate Past Chairman of the Association of Bankers, Bangladesh Limited (ABB) and a former Chairman of Primary Dealers Bangladesh Limited (PDBL). He also served as the Chairperson of the SWIFT Member & User Group of Bangladesh. A regular speaker in the global circuit, he has demonstrated his international quality competency in the field of finance, banking, and management.

The Management Guru By Asaduzzaman

There are 57 banks in the country which include PoCBs, Specialized Banks, Islami Banks, Privately owned Commercial Banks and Foreign Banks. Although we have a huge unbanked population, what are the prospects of the banking industry?

Investment to GDP ratio has a direct correlation to the contribution of the banking sector to GDP. To be more precise, the growth of private investment is the key to the contribution of the sector to GDP. As of now, the growth of private investment is behind the growth of public investment due to recent public investments in large infrastructure projects. When the infrastructure is in place, private investment will get a fillip, with a consequent increase in the banking sector's

contribution to the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s GDP. This dynamic has the potential to grow by 4% to 5% within the next ten years. The point is you cannot take a large aircraft to your doorstep. You land at an airport, and then take a bus or car to reach your destination. You will use the best possible option for this purpose. Similarly, banks have to spread their branches all over the country, but the last mile to the doorstep needs a different solution. Here comes Agent Banking and Mobile Banking. Regarding financial inclusion, banks have started to reach out. However, they still have miles to go.

With the expansion of IT in the banking sector, the risk of cyber heist has increased. How significant is the threat of cybersecurity? How is your bank dealing with cybersecurity issues? The amazing and mind-boggling metamorphosis of computers to smart handheld devices has revolutionized nearly every step of our everyday life and made our lives more convenient and super-connected. Side by side, hackers are extremely on the prowl in their diabolical attempts to breach into systems of the virtual world through

malware, ransomware, etc. This is a continuous and vicious process, and, in this case, the enemy is invisible and unknown, and we have no idea where in the world they are operating. The smarter the hackers grow, the harder the security standards are heightened, thereby increasing the cost of doing business. Cybersecurity is a serious threat even to Google, the global tech giant. According to news reports, BankBot Android banking Trojan, a malware that can avoid Google's security scans, has been downloaded, unknowingly, by many users from Google Play, however, later on, Google was able to remove these BankBots. There are always chances of the cyber heist in banks, and they must build tightened security systems against any such breach to protect their customers and themselves from harm. I am pleased to reveal that quite recently, we have been able to set up an IT Security Department and appointed a Group Chief IT Security Officer (GCITSO) for the first time. The GCITSO, who is adept in computer systems in banks, and has himself served as a Chief www.ibtbd.net

Information Technology Officer, earlier, is working hard to ensure the most impenetrable security system for the bank. For this, we are supporting the department with the latest hardware, software, training and consultancy services from experts of the region.

What is your core banking policy and at this stage of globalization how do you plan on coping with changing banking policies? We all are interconnected, 24/7, in the global village we now inhabit. From citizens, we are very quickly becoming netizens of the world. Economic activity in any part of the world may have an adverse impact on another part, instantaneously. Therefore, it is imperative to use technology to ensure the safety of all transactions of our bank. Following are the

highlights of the priority areas to cope the changing global landscape and up-gradation of systems: * Compliance * Quality of assets * Quality of service * Continuous innovation of processes * Security against cyber heist * Continuous up-gradation of Human Resources through modern training

Word has it that in time plastic money along with other transactional methods will entirely replace cash transactions. What are your thoughts in this regard? Global non-cash transaction volumes grew 11.2% during 2014-2015 to reach $433.1 billion, the highest growth achieved over the past decade. Despite the increased adoption of digital payments, cash continues to be in the mainstream, mainly, for low-value transactions, as stated in the World Payments Report 2017. The rise of the Bitcoin, especially this year, has brought a big question mark to the forefront, and

When the infrastructure is in place, private investment will get a fillip, with a consequent increase in the banking sector's contribution to the country’s GDP. This dynamic has the potential to grow by 4% to 5% within the next ten years.”

that is how the regulators of existing monetary systems will adapt to this new era. Change, there undoubtedly will be, however, in the light of current knowledge and regulatory framework relating to money supply, it can only be said that full replacement of hard currency and plastic money will be difficult to achieve in the foreseeable future.

What is your Corporate Social Responsibility policy? How do you contribute through CSR in respect to Global Social Responsibility?

We have our own Green Banking Policy, in light of the instructions received from the central bank. According to the policy, projects are thoroughly inspected to ensure that they do not have any environmental impact. Furthermore, we have set up a “Sustainable Finance Unit” to ensure proper implementation of the policy above. MTB is a participant of the UN Global Compact, and each year, the bank publishes a Sustainability Report as part of GRI guidelines, which discloses all the impacts that the bank may have on the society and environment as a whole. Disaster Management continues to receive top priority from us. Health takes second place, as we believe we must care for the sick people who are unable to afford proper medical care. We also devote a significant part of our available resources to education-related programs, especially for the meritorious but underserved children living in remote areas of the country, like chars and enclaves. We also provide bicycles to students, especially girls, who live far from their schools, under our ‘Swapno Sharathi’ CSR program. Since the launch of

this unique program in 2015, more than 1,500 bicycles have been presented to school-going children of the country.

There is an increase of Non-Performing Loans, and, at the same time, the interest cap is very high. How will this affect the competition?

NPLs call for making provisions, as an allowance for bad loans, which in turn squeezes the bank’s hard-earned profits. On top of that, this provision amount is fully taxed adding to our burden and cost of doing business. On the other hand, as a business grows (this year, the banks have so far achieved 18% growth in private sector credit), there is a spiraling demand for deposits, and with so many banks competing in the marketplace, interest rates for deposits will inch upward resulting in narrower spreads and lesser profits. Fewer profits may lead to aggressive lending, which then creates an over-banked environment with its inherent risks. However, maintaining strict discipline and close and constant monitoring of loans and advances by all banks will help control over-financing and reduce NPLs. The competition will get tougher with some more new banks expected to arrive in 2018, and only the compliant and best service providing banks will flourish with high-quality assets and a stable stream of profits.

What is the portion of retail banking in your revenue? What are your plans for proceeding in this regard?

In consideration to the growing middle class, we can now offer more retail loans to meet their emerging needs. The total retail loan

portfolio in the industry ranges from 8% to 9%. In general, the growth of retail loans is not encouraged by the regulators and economists because, in their opinion, it creates inflation and consumerism. A careful balance must be struck on how much can be lent to individuals, keeping in mind their ability to repay. We wish to grow our retail portfolio in tandem with the pace of the country’s economic growth, and, precisely, with the rise in per capita income, while keeping an eye on price inflation in the economy.

The marketing and access to commercial banks from the agro-based industries and SMEs are still not enough. Do you have any plans in this regard?

I think under Bangladesh Bank’s policy-making efforts, awareness programs and agro and SME friendly stance, most banks have launched many attractive programs in this arena. The

central bank fixes the annual target for disbursements of loans in these two vital sectors each year, which banks have to meet or pay the penalty. Also, banks do have access to these sectors via linkages with NGOs operating in the rural and remote areas. Our bank has special products, such as MTB Krishi for farmers, MTB Light Engineering, MTB Green Finance, MTB Mousumi for shopkeepers, MTB Bhagyaboti and MTB Gunabati for women entrepreneurs, which are all highly successful and led to a 70% increase in our portfolio, year on year. Also, and most excitingly, the bank has by now opened 50 Agent Banking Centres in remote parts of the country, and we have already commenced disbursing these sort of loans through them, most conveniently and quickly.

What are your thoughts regarding risk management? What are the challenges in this respect?

In light of the Sibos Toronto 2017, which is the premier annual conference for bankers and technology

support organizations of the world, I want to share a changing dynamic. Speakers at its various forums and plenary sessions recognized that a shift to a more targeted, risk-based approach to financial crime compliance demanded greater information-sharing between banks, regulators and law enforcement agencies. Financial crime compliance experts call for a smarter approach, built on technology innovation, information sharing, risk-based policies and common sense, which they call Intelligent Compliance. Panelists discussed the potential offered by an emerging form of public-private sector collaboration: financial information-sharing partnerships (FISPs), currently deployed in six countries. The future of risk management lies how intelligently we can use information shared by the banks, regulators and government agencies. Quality and speed of the information shared by them will ease the risk management task. The challenges are connecting the banks, regulators and government agencies on a single platform and ensuring quality and speed of the data.

MTB is a participant of the UN Global Compact, and each year, the bank publishes a Sustainability Report as part of GRI guidelines, which discloses all the impacts that the bank may have on the society and environment as a whole.”

How can you enhance the skill development of your employees? Do you think that you are getting proper workforce from the existing talent pool?

We recruit highly talented young boys and girls and train them hard so that they become equipped to becoming world-class bankers. The MTB Training Institute (MTBTI) is a state-of-the-art facility, which conducts induction and orientation courses for new entrants and appropriate and practical training courses, workshops, seminars, appreciation courses, etc. We invite foreign trainers, as well as local experts, to share their knowledge and experiences with our MTBians. We also conduct online quizzes on the bank’s MNet – its intranet and cutting-edge communication tool. Continuous learning and developing skills are vital for developing quality human resources.

What are your plans regarding improving Financial Inclusion and Green Banking?

Agent Banking Centres will become increasingly crucial for wider financial inclusion. These centers allow us to reach unbanked people at a fraction of the cost required for operating a full bank branch. We look forward to increasing the number of MTB Agent Banking Centres to more than 100 by the end of 2018. We have already stated earlier that we are publishing MTB Sustainability Reports since 2014, which has been appreciated by the regulators and other stakeholders. Also, a dedicated team, manning the Sustainable Finance Unit looks after Green Banking initiatives. www.ibtbd.net

Interview

Humayun Rashid

Managing Director & CEO Energypac Power Generation Ltd.

Born to the parents late Abdul Hannan and Rashida Khatoon, Humayun Rashid is the Managing Director and CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of Energypac Power Generation Ltd. Having about thirty-two years of experience in the diversified field of manufacturing, Humayun Rashid is a globally recognized business leader. He is also the Director and CEO of Energypac Fashions Ltd., Energypac Electronics Ltd. and the Director of Energypac Electronics Ltd., Energypac Engineering Ltd., Energypac Sea Food Ltd., Energypac Infrastructure & Development Ltd., Energypac Ceramic Ltd., Energypac Transformers Ltd., and Energypac-Confidence Power Venture Chittagong Ltd. Humayun Rashid is the Vice President of Dhaka Chamber of Commerce & Industry (DCCI) and was the former President of France Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIFB). He is Vice President of International Business Forum of Bangladesh (IBFB) and Member of Bangladesh Garments Manufacturing and Exporting Association(BGMEA) and Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce & Industry(MCCI).

Success for the Ages:

How a CEO can take an organization to new heights

factors. Success with profitability comes when every related process is time and cost effective, high standard of quality is ensured and efficiently monitored and evaluated regularly.

What are your main traits that brought you success as a CEO? How do you ensure a balance between Critical Success Factor (CSF) and ensuring profitability?

The secret of any success is passion, hard work, and team spirit. As a CEO, I have always followed 3Rs â&#x20AC;&#x201C; respect for the people and coworkers, responsibility towards the job, customers and community and, resonant leadership to create positive changes through innovation, mindfulness, and compassion. To achieve organizational goals, mission, and vision, efficiency and effectiveness are two critical

What are the challenges of a CEO in the age of smart data?

In this modern era of technology and rapid innovation, the challenges of a CEO are enormous. While keeping updated with global practices and rapid changes in technology, maintaining big data with growing business need is a challenge. In our country, modern technology like fully functioning automation in each process requires high cost and not enough qualified workforce is being produced there. Lack of skilled workforce, infrastructural development, and good governance practice come as threats to run a business.

How do you intend to maximize the brand equity in a competitive market? As a progressive and socially aware company, we are committed for the betterment of the community. We promote Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives that focus on being involved in our communities, conscious of our environmental footprint, and responsible for our business practices.

What are the most rewarding sides of being a CEO? I feel rewarded when I can reliably transfer the power and responsibilities to my team. Also, I consider that adding values to the business, developing new concepts and skill development are perks of being a CEO. www.ibtbd.net

How do you maintain your activity planning? How to ensure the highest level of productivity? What do you envision for your company in future?

I maintain PTS (project time schedule) for each project and organize my activities ahead of time. Productivity is an output of proper planning and implementation with the whole team including finance, supply chain, human resources, safety and compliance, and the project teams. I see myself as a social worker and a philanthropist to serve the community. I dream to contribute to need-based skilled workforce development of new generation in future.

You have recently celebrated your 50th birthday and your line of business in many productive fields. What are the secret of your success?

I have a deep passion for creativity and innovation. The name Energypac itself is an example of innovation, and so is the company. My massive interest in business related to power, mechanical and electrical engineering, and my energetic team has driven me to the position where Energypac is a self-sustained brand today.

Energypac is a value-based and doing ethical business practices where quality is the matter. So, what are the challenges you are facing in this fields where you are competing with the cheap products from China and other area and also the engineering company? In this age of free economy, the market is full of global

competition. In my opinion, the bigger problem than market being dumped by Chinese products is the lack of proper control and less monitored rules and regulations of the market. Sometimes syndicated traders play unfairly in the price market. BSTI and other regulatory bodies cannot control the whole market efficiently that exposes us to foreign threats. The government must protect the local business with proper standardization.

You were awarded Quality of Excellence by the Ministry of Industry, how do you maintain a proactive environment?

To meet global manufacturing practices, we have ISO 9001:2008 certification and will get ISO 14001 certification by this year. We ensure quality along with occupational safety and give utmost priority to workers safety. Our factories are environment-friendly where we strictly follow safety compliances.

Despite some improvements in specific categories, infrastructure and labor market efficiency are the most significant barriers to do business in Bangladesh. Good governance needs to be ensured to overcome these barriers. We need to manage efficient port handling, need to build more improved roads and highways, the smooth channel of transportation, land law reformation and strict monitoring of laws and regulations need to be ensured.â&#x20AC;?

Bangladesh requires a great deal of energy supply, and there are challenges in infrastructure. How can this situation be overcome?

Bangladesh has been ranked 99 out of 137 countries in the Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) 2017-18 by the World Economic Forum. Despite some improvements in specific categories, infrastructure and labor market efficiency are the most significant barriers to do business in Bangladesh. Good governance needs to be ensured to overcome these barriers. We need to manage efficient port handling. The need to build more improved roads and highways, the smooth channel of transportation, land law reformation and strict monitoring of laws and regulations need to be ensured. Massive financing is still very challenging in Bangladesh as the cost of financing is relatively very high. Long-term financing facilities with lower cost should be encouraged from the bank and other financial institutions. PPP should be encouraged for future economic changes and large infrastructural projects. The capital market should be efficient and regularly monitored to ensure structural budgeting and efficient stock market. Moreover, poor work ethics is a new alarming problem that needs to be addressed immediately with good governance. If these barriers can be adequately controlled, Bangladesh has high prospects to set an example as an efficiency-driven economy.

Interview

Rahel Ahmed

Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer Prime Bank

RAHEL AHMED Managing Director & CEO of Prime Bank Limited since 14th December 2017 is currently the youngest bank CEO in town and also one of the youngest bank CEOs ever in the history of Bangladeshâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s banking arena. He also hails from the then ANZ Grindlaysâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; generation that currently dominates the top spots among major private banks in the country. Rahel brings along more than 22 years of professional exposure in banking industry of both domestic and international markets with multinational and regional banks, in various capacities spanning over the Wholesale Banking domain that includes specialization in Islamic Banking. He commenced his career in ANZ Grindlays Bank as a Management Trainee and moved up the ladder in their Corporate Banking space focusing mostly in Mid to Large Corporate clientele base. Thereafter, he worked for Standard Chartered Bank in Bangladesh in the capacity of the Head of Local & International Corporates. Before joining in his current role, he served for 7 plus years in two of the largest regional Banks of Middle East and was actively involved in raising large debt for international corporate, sovereign and financial institutions within Middle East and other regions. During the last 2.5 years, he spearheaded the ongoing Centralization Process/Business Process reengineering and let alone the successful Corporate Business of Prime Bank Limited. He has received Outstanding Employee and CEO award during his career on multiple occasions, from Standard Chartered Bank and First Gulf Bank, in recognition of his outstanding performance.

BANKING BEYOND THE TRADITIONAL APPROACHES By Ishrat Jahan

As I was led through an automatic passage door to the tidy cabin at half past ten in the morning, I observed a bunch of employees working at their designated computers ready to deliver their best. Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Prime Bank, Rahel Ahmed was comfortably sipping his morning coffee. He fondly mentioned how the Grindlays’ Management Trainee program groomed and instilled the leadership qualities in him and many others from that generation. Rahel further slipped into the detailed insights on the functionalities of his bank. When talked about the core banking policy, he mentions that the way banks work here is almost similar to how they work globally. The only difference, he adds, is that are few products and services used more often in other geographies than they are in Bangladesh. “Banks are often

known to be the data mines as we deal with customer data and the management information system. Thus, the more robust the system is, the easier it gets to better meet the customer requirements and offer tailor made futuristic solutions,” explains Rahel. He further expands that Prime bank has recently upgraded to one of the best core banking system available globally. The bank has leaped from the previous version to the newest version of their core banking system software to ease out the customer convenience. "Prime Bank has been a corporate-focused bank for the most part of its life till date; this sector roughly represents around 75% of the bank’s balance sheet. The bank has done a lot of restructuring in its operations and business processes in the past few years and a part of our mission and vision is to bring a balance between Corporate, SME and Consumer Banking as a whole," states Rahel. As we look at it from a macro economical point of view, Rahel elaborates that corporate banking has played a major role in the development of the economy over the past few decades, "The growth of the Textile, RMG and other manufacturing sectors, alongside the development of infrastructure and the availability of power and energy,

is directly linked with the contributions from leading banks namely Prime and other renowned ones. Furthermore, the expansion of the middle-class segment of the population has led to increased consumerism which has resulted in a purchasing power and current per capita income worth $1,600." The estimated vision of the State as he speaks is to increase such variables to $12,000 by 2041 when the economy size would be worth approximately $3 trillion. Previously Bangladesh was more of an agriculture-based economy, which has now moved to more of a manufacturing-led one. Moreover, Rahel describes, “New developments in the economy like women empowerment has made them more open to choices; thus, promoting consumerism on an even larger scale. As for example, the local toiletries industry has evolved greatly compared to multinationals in lieu of the growth and expansion of the local market demand. All of these are having a ripple effect on the growth of consumer banking." He further explains his concern on how the increasing number of Nonperforming Loans (NPLs) day by day is affecting the competitive dynamics. Rahel postulates, "The Nonperforming Loans are affecting the optimum level of competitiveness almost all the banks in the industry. There are a couple of ways NPLs www.ibtbd.net

can be looked upon, one being a willful default for which the assessment or due diligence process needs to be more robust for many of the banks/financial institutions. On the other hand, Bangladesh economy has scaled up but not to the extent that will require 57 odd number of banks. The increasing competition with no major difference in the buying ability has brought every bank under the pressure of making a profit and has thus, deteriorated the quality of the due diligence process in such banks." Another aspect he cited here is from recent changes of Indian Banking laws, which has refurbished their solvency and bankruptcy act entirely along with the policy of non-performing loans. He explains the situation, "The tightening has brought many respected firms under the category of NPL, and the banks have further disseminated the loans amongst more solvent firms to get rid of the issue. The government of India has also been investing huge on state-owned banks, which is a step that our government may follow to drive such toxic portfolios away. Thus, it is only after all these have been implemented, that the Bangladesh banking sector may be further developed.” When asked about the major challenges faced by the banks regarding corporate banking and the way Prime Bank plans to tackle them, he replies, "Amongst the major challenges that lie are the existence of too many banks where due diligence process gets compromised many a times by most, in the process. Good corporates often are allured to overtrade or stretch their financial obligation backed by offering of more facilities than actually required and the chances of double

financing tends to increase. On the other hand, when the banks here are supporting corporates, they lack in providing the amount of infrastructure support that is gained by other competitors of such corporates from Vietnam, India, China, etc. Similarly, it is also said a huge bulk of the idle money is locked within the state-owned banks who are not lending as much as we speak but preventing the local private banks from growing further due to non-access of that cheaper liquidity." The merger between banks would be one of the profound solutions when it comes to such problems as the combined power of such banks can easily drive the toxic portfolios out. The even distribution of the idle money can also help to further facilitate growth. Leading banks have now shifted focus from money lending to providing banking solutions and the business in Bangladesh has scaled up greatly as a whole. Prime Bank now plays an advisory role alongside. Rahel elaborates upon this role, "As the corporates are getting larger they are requiring more treasury management; thus, Prime Bank also provides cash management solutions alongside. The bank also gives 360-degree solutions, taking care of the trade financing and trade solution services. Export Credit Agency (ECA) financing and supply chain management solutions also form a part of the bank’s portfolio now. We are not only lending money now but also supporting the SME growth by offering end to end solutions towards the suppliers and distributors of our large corporate clients." Ahmed also details on how the agro-based industries and Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are yet

Rahel illustrates how local banks are in a race to match the global pace: System:

If we talk about globalization, Bangladesh’s economy has evolved greatly in the past two decades, and the banks here are no exceptions to that globally. They may definitely not be on par with the multinational ones who have stronger system and support back up but are adapting quite well to the changes in the consumer demand pattern. Being a private local bank, Prime Bank has limitations when it comes to investing in systems at a scale in which multinationals do, but the reach of technology within the limitations these days have made our operations grow extensively.

Process:

When talking about process, there is no doubt that the garment industry has made the most progress in that sector. However, the banking sector alongside has come beyond the use of traditional methods of banking to a more integrated system that allows the process to be quicker resulting in more satisfied customers. Most of the leading local banks here have roughly 80% of the products and services available globally, and the changing demand is now being met more often than usual.

Platform:

If we are to talk about Bangladesh, specifically from the corporate banking perspective, I would say that in the past 7 to 10 years this sector has become more mature. We have come past the use of the basic trade-finance, plain vanilla, products and are now more inclined towards commercial banking and issuing of bonds. ECA financing has also been introduced to support the power generation issues, and it will not be long when you see Islamic Sukuk being introduced as well.

to have proper access to the commercial banks as the banks have yet to increase their reach regarding the agro-based industries and SMEs, "The Central Bank has now made it mandatory for banks to dedicate a certain percentage of their services to the agro-based industries. Prime Bank is performing well in that line directly as well as by affiliation with NGOs to reduce the barrier when it comes to reaching consumers residing in the very remote rural areas." In regards to the rising concerns about cyber heist Rahel elaborates that it has greatly increased alongside the use of IT in almost every sector in Bangladesh, "Prime Bank has upgraded their IT system to its latest version. Constant security checks and assessments make the system quite reliable. As a part of security measure we have also hired IT specialists often termed as “ethical hackers” who continuously monitor and fix loopholes that exist in the current system." Rahel takes the last sip of his coffee. He mentions that the core banking system of the local banks are almost at par with those existing worldwide. However, in terms of product offering and solution based banking, Bangladesh is catching up. He ends on a hopeful note mentioning a new higher-class segment of the population is predicted to come into the scene very soon which will require wealth management services like the way it happens in the western world, increasing the demand for banking services further.

Interview

Sylvana Quader Sinha

Founder, Managing Director and CEO of Praava Health

The women of the yesteryears have always shown dynamism long before the time of progression. Hence weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve had the likes of Begum Rokeya, Sufia Kamal as well as Zohra Begum Kazi paving the way for many more pathfinders like themselves to lead the way for others. Their indomitable spirit and contribution to the society served as guidance for many generations of women despite the age-old gender banter. But much has changed over the years; women are now more actively involved in the corporate front braving complex fields of work that are often considered to be a male-driven territory. Sylvana Quader Sinha too belongs to this generation of women leaders. A 360-degree view of foreign policy, emerging markets, and development has informed her vision for the healthcare industry in Bangladesh. With the establishment of Praava Health, Sylvana aims to introduce a systemic change to the way healthcare is delivered.

The New Face of Health: An Innovative Approach to Medical Care In a PwC’s Strategy & report, it showed that the share of incoming women CEOs in the world’s 2,500 largest public companies dropped to 2.8%. Among healthcare companies the rate was even lower-1.6%. How do you think they can be motivated to pursue authoritative roles in the healthcare industry? As a female CEO specialising in health, what challenges have you faced upon establishing a medical facility like Praava Health in Bangladesh?

Every day is an adventure and a challenge; I have learned to expect the unexpected. Specifically, I think human capital is our biggest challenge in building a world-class healthcare system in Bangladesh, but honestly, it hasn’t been quite as difficult as I had expected. Praava has been very lucky and humbled to attract some incredibly talented individuals to help us build this dream.

There are certainly systemic and institutional roadblocks to women accessing power globally and locally. Still, Bangladesh is doing better than many of our peers regarding women in positions of power, starting with our Prime Minister, Speaker of the House, and former Prime Minister, as well as influential female leaders in the business community. Despite that, women are often underestimated in theory. That doesn’t bother me too much - in some ways, I prefer to be underestimated and to let my work speak for itself. Frankly speaking, I think that socio-economic barriers are more difficult to overcome than

those relating to gender in Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, women in medicine often choose to specialise in women’s health and paediatrics, but I hope we will start to see women branching out into other fields as well. We are proud at Praava Health that our Senior Medical Director Dr. Simeen Akhtar has been working in the field of quality and hospital administration for many years and she also has practiced all over the world in her area of specialty, internal medicine. So, the tide is starting to shift, and I hope that will continue.

Service wise, what standards do you endorse at Praava Health? How is it different from those that are being provided by local private companies as well as international chains? Praava Health envisions a world-class health care system www.ibtbd.net

that puts patients first. Every process is designed to get patients the solutions they need faster. We are bringing back the family doctor, who has a personal relationship with you, is aware of your entire medical history, and cooperates with you to manage your health. We guarantee that our family physicians will spend a minimum of 10 minutes with you for each appointment. The fact is that family doctors can address 80-90% of the issues that come up for most people. Only in a few instances will a referral to a specialist or hospital be required. Consistently, we hear Bangladeshi patients complain about a lack of trust in our healthcare system. In fact, anyone who can afford to travel abroad for healthcare does, often at substantial personal expense and sacrifice. When surveyed, patients who are

traveling abroad cite lack of trust in the system as the number one reason they are leaving Bangladesh to seek healthcare. Trust is indeed the core of any effective healthcare system. Patients feel better when their doctors spend time getting to know them. Patient-centred care is a holistic approach to health care. It goes beyond educating patients about their diagnosis and potential treatments by involving them in critical decisions about their health, taking into account their circumstances and preferences. There is substantial evidence that patient-centred care improves clinical outcomes and satisfaction by enhancing the quality of the doctor-patient relationship, while at the same time decreasing overall healthcare costs and wastefulness. Praava Health was founded upon this core value of patient-centric care, also supported by in-house quality diagnostics and enabled by technology. Our lab and facility have been designed according to the standards of the College of

Although tremendous progress has been made in Bangladesh’s rural health outcomes and social development indicators, in the urban setting, healthcare is not at the level it needs to be.”

American Pathology (CAP) and the Joint Commission of Inquiry (JCI), both international accreditation bodies from whom we hope to secure accreditation within a couple of years. We have brought Bangladesh its first fully integrated HIS (Hospital Information System), including EHR (Electronic Health Records) and featuring the first Patient Portal available on the internet or an app on your phone, for patients to download medical records, make appointments, and communicate with doctors and medical professionals. We want to enable patients to have every tool imaginable to empower them to manage their own health.

What inspired you to focus on healthcare in particular? To what extent has your academic background helped you better understand the health industry in the Global South and Bangladesh?

I am an American-born Bangladeshi who moved to Dhaka for the first time in my life to build Praava Health, after a career in international law and development, including The World Bank and major international law firms, and the US foreign policy as an advisor to Obama. I was educated at Harvard, Columbia, and Wellesley. A few years ago, I realized that although I had been lucky to have some incredible professional experiences, I wasn't finding the impact I craved. I had always wanted to do something for Bangladesh, but I didn’t know what that would be. I knew the need for quality healthcare in Bangladesh based on multiple experiences of loved ones, and the market opportunity

at this stage of the country's development acutely. The Bangladeshi economy has been built upon the growing strength of the middle class, and that requires a healthy population. Although tremendous progress has been made in Bangladesh’s rural health outcomes and social development indicators, in the urban setting, healthcare is not at the level it needs to be. The fact is that for anything beyond the most basic primary care needs, anyone who can afford to is accessing the private system or traveling abroad. It is inappropriate to need to leave one’s own country to access quality healthcare. My work in development also taught me of the strong evidence that private sector investments in infrastructure actually alleviate poverty. This knowledge and my professional experiences drove me to build something homegrown based upon lessons from other markets – we don’t need to reinvent the wheel when it comes to healthcare - and what made sense for Bangladesh at this moment of its economic development.

What extensive treatment does Praava Health offer to cancer patients? A DG Health document on National Cancer Strategy stated in 2015 that 200,000 develop cancer and 150,000 die of cancer every year. In 2015, the cancer load was 1,200,000 people. Bangladesh unfortunately has no cancer registry something we hope to be part of building - but we believe the incidence of cancer is in fact much higher than 1.2 million. WHO estimates that 196,000 have lung cancer alone. Praava Health has built Bangladesh’s first PCR lab

for molecular cancer diagnostics. Molecular cancer diagnostics can reduce cancer mortality based on early detection as well as a better understanding of patient’s disposition to various treatment options and disease management. Other facilities in Bangladesh offer molecular cancer diagnostics tests, but the samples are sent abroad for analysis. By doing these tests in Bangladesh, we minimize error rates that can be caused while transporting samples abroad, substantially lessen the cost to the patient, and reduce turnaround times for reports. Rapid turnaround times are crucial when making decisions regarding targeted therapies for cancer patients.

With issues like malpractice and misdiagnosis, private hospitals in Bangladesh are often subjected to critical reception. In a time like this, how does Praava aim to gain trust and goodwill among the consumers?

Many patients in Bangladesh complain about mistakes they have experienced in diagnostic testing – and honestly it isn’t fair for us to blame doctors for this, when the underlying testing facilities aren’t necessarily producing reliable results. It is not uncommon to send out 5 samples of blood to various facilities across the country and return 5 different results. At Praava, we are taking significant measures to minimize diagnostic error rates, including use of checklists. As noted, our facility has been designed according to the standards of the College of American

Pathology (CAP) and the Joint Commission of Inquiry (JCI). That said, medicine is a not a perfect science. We are doing everything we can to track errors that may occur; including taking accountability when such errors take place - as well as to continually obtain and learn from patient feedback so we can improve every patient’s experience.

Could you elaborate on some of the projects you are currently working on and some that you have in the pipelines?

We are planning to roll out several dozen Praava Family Health Centers across Bangladesh in the coming years. We have also recently signed agreements with a few international partners, including Joslin Diabetes Center (Harvard Medical School) and Narayana Health, whereby patients can have their cases reviewed by doctors abroad, and several others which we are excited to share with the public in the coming months. The future of healthcare is technology –

When surveyed, patients who are traveling abroad cite lack of trust in the system as the number one reason they are leaving Bangladesh to seek healthcare. Trust is indeed the core of any effective healthcare system. Patients feel better when their doctors spend time getting to know them. Patient-centred care is a holistic approach to health care. It goes beyond educating patients about their diagnosis and potential treatments by involving them in critical decisions about their health, taking into account their circumstances and preferences.”

though we believe technology can never replace the family doctor, it can enable improved diagnostic accuracy, clinical outcomes, and patient experiences. Over time, harnessing technology and data and creative alternative financing models, Praava Health hopes to be able to offer world class health care to tens of millions of Bangladeshis.

How successful have you been in minimizing cases of depression and anxiety through your counsellors and psychologists? What more do you think needs to be done in the mental health forefront to eradicate issues like suicide, self-destructive behaviours or body image issues?

One of our psychologists, Dr. Shamim Firdaus Karim, is specifically trained in a psychotherapy treatment known as Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), which was initially designed to alleviate the distress associated with traumatic memories. It has been tremendously effective for individuals who have suffered specific incidents of trauma. The biggest challenge in mental health services in this country is the scarcity of psychiatrists - there are only 200 psychiatrists for a population of more than 160 million. It would be wonderful to get the government’s support to develop this field further and to encourage young doctors to specialize in mental health. We are excited to learn of some strides other colleagues in the ecosystem are also taking to improve local capacity and access to mental health services. www.ibtbd.net

Event

Breaking the Glass Ceiling The challenges and solutions to creating equality in the workplace.

During the interactive session, ‘Women in the workplace: Breaking barriers and moving forward,’ the speakers emphasized identifying the challenges in the workplace and taking measures to prevent it. The session organized by Career Solutions, an emerging company in the human resource arena, took place on 15 December 2017 in the country’s capital and addressed the day to day obstacles faced by women in their respective workplaces. The event was divided into three segments, where the panelists first exchanged views with the journalists; attendees included representatives from different corporate organizations, human resources consultants, and students from various public and private universities. The event commenced with its first meet-and-greet session. The segment was then followed by a panel discussion which stressed on

the need for changing mindset among people to break barriers for women in the workplace.

Bottlenecks: Identifying the Source of Inequality

“It is often that women are exposed to societal and workplace practices that do not encourage growth through flexibility and the lack of podiums to share experiences as such prevents women to know how to deal with them,” postulates Afreen Zaman Khan, Lecturer at Independent University of Bangladesh (IUB). The conversation took an exciting phase as Zarin Chowdhury, Head of Business; Munshi HR Solutions pointed out a root level cause for women having a self-made barrier inside when it comes to working head-to-head with male individuals. She further mentions, “The

culture in our country promotes gender discrimination when it comes to the idea of freedom. This instills a societal barrier inside the women from a very early age preventing them from performing their best in the best possible scenarios.” Sexism and biases in the workplace while assigning roles also hamper the performance of a woman if not addressed adequately mentioned others in the discussion.

Breakthroughs: The Way Towards Workforce Equality As the event moved onto its next session on delivering solutions to the general problems Khadija Rehma, General Manager (Communication) of Sajida Foundation mentioned,“It is important to unlearn the preexposed culture and be more open to changes.”

With regards to that, other solutions also talked about the importance of having a liberal organizational culture that would encourage more women to work consistently. Gulsetyne Ahmed drew from her work experience in both a male and female-oriented profession as a Co-Pilot of Regent Airways and a news presenter of Bangladesh Television, “It is difficult to encourage women to come out of the conventional system and go for doing new things. A woman needs to be the best version of herself to fight against all the odds.” The discussion not only touched the societal and cultural aspects but also brought to light the importance of women coming forward and taking the lead. Faria Ahmed, the Founder of Career Solutions also added, “We can prevent barriers through long-term strategies like vouching for government-imposed guidelines on in-house daycare facilities and flexible hours for larger organizations, just as we have done for maternity leave.” Other speakers like Samiha Chowdhury from Standard Chartered Bangladesh and Mansura Oishi of BRAC also enlightened the event with their presence. The program closed with a crest giving ceremony through which Career Solutions appreciated the presence of all their panelists, sponsors and the audience at the event.

INterview

Taslim Ahmed CEO Unitrend

VISION AND COURAGE FOR CHANGE

We are more innovative when it comes to managing brands and their business. Unitrend does not promote the idea of having a dedicated team for individual clients, which allows us to treat every brand equally regardless of its size.”

The CEO of Unitrend Ltd., local affiliate-McCann World Group and an Impress Group concern Taslim Ahmed makes communication a priority. He believes that if core messages and values are not provided large companies will cease to function with a unified mission. ICE Business Times sits with Taslim as he describes his journey working with global brands such Nestle, Berger and working his way up the corporate ladder to the Head of Communication and PR of Citycell. CEOs are somewhat self-selected into roles that set them apart from other individuals in an organization, and they have specific traits that distinguish them amongst the rest. Taslim explains his take on leadership, “I believe a successful leader is

a person who lets people grow in their own capabilities. It is important for any leader to eliminate the fine line that is created between bosses and employees overtime. As a CEO, I did things in a way, which I think was right, unlearning the traditional on-going practices and always prioritized on keeping the basics right. Thus, putting employees at the core of business strategies has helped me come this far. I have always believed that employees make up your company and help the most to realize its vision; this is why I take care of the people and they take care of the business; in a nutshell – “People First” The market dynamics along with consumer behaviorism of the nation’s growing economy is www.ibtbd.net

changing with the help of massive internet penetration. Taslim believes that there is a concrete solution to this shift, “We plan to respond to such changes using both internally and externally tailor made strategies to cater to specific dynamics. Our first attempt is always focused on improving employee effectiveness internally through an extensive HR audit. Through this, we are trying to build a more contemporary team that is well aware of the increasing digitization and immediate changes in the market demand.” He believes that changing mindsets is not enough, there has to be a shift in marketing strategies, “Similarly, as the market will take its form from a physical place to a virtual one, Unitrend is also coming up with a new venture ‘Next Motion’ that will act as a digital wing for the company and cater to

the needs of its digital audience.” Taslim believes that Unitrend’s approach is what sets them apart from the plethora of agencies in the market, “We are more innovative when it comes to managing brands and their business. Unitrend does not promote the idea of having a dedicated team for individual clients, which allows us to treat every brand equally regardless of its size. And it is only possible for a process driven organization. We do not subscribe to the idea of milking the clients or providing orthodox solution to client briefs; rather custom made solutions to meet each of the need a brand/client requires at varying occasions. That’s what I think makes us different from the competitors.” Unitrend has successfully dealt with numerous global and local firms during its many years of operation. Taslim postulates that their success comes from planning that caters to

The amount of exposure I have had to knowledge sharing on a global platform and my learnings on managing a team while working under the managerial authorities in Citycell or Nestle and so on have helped me immensely to plan strategies for Unitrend.”

demands of both markets, “As an agency, we can explore our potentials and experiment more with new strategies when it comes to local brands. However, regarding global brands, there is a pre-set guideline that in many cases does not allow us to be a little adventurous or strategize the brand completely locally.” Taslim equates his outlook to the many years of working with international organizations, “The amount of exposure I have had to knowledge sharing on a global platform and my learnings on managing a team while working under the managerial authorities in Citycell or Nestle and so on have helped me immensely to plan strategies for Unitrend.” Agencies must undergo a paradigm shift from being urban-focused to going country-wide. Taslim articulates that Unitrend approaches this change with careful consideration of the target market, “Strategies often depend on the brands an agency is handling. There is often a need of being urban-focused to target the right consumers for the brand. However, when looking at it from a holistic perspective many brands are extensively placing efforts on upholding the rural potentials which must be brought into the light.” Taslim understands that the balance between the Critical Success Factor (CSF) and ensuring profitability is complicated, “In most of the marketing agencies strategies hover around the satisfaction of the clients, and everything is done accordingly. My approach in this sense is a little differ-

ent, and I believe focusing a bit more on employee satisfaction along with clients that go hand in hand. In my tenure of being a CEO so far this has what let me have happier clients and brought in the most amount of profit for the company simultaneously in this period.” Taslim points out that Unitrend is expanding to newer ventures in the future, “Two more business avenues that we are coming up with recently consists of the ‘Next Motion’ as mentioned earlier and ‘IMG’ (Image Management Consultants). ‘Next Motion’ is a digital innovation wing that will cater to the growing digitalization whereas IMG will help out our clients with reputation management as it has become increasingly important to maintain brand image.” He recognizes the support of foreign partners in their endeavors, “I am glad that a couple of Global Companies have agreed to help us with the capacity building for Next Motion and we are vigorously working in the process of laying out our operations soon. The backing of such a huge local conglomerate like Impress Group lets our company and workers know that we are heading towards the right direction.” The CEO applies similar theories to this career and the company, “I have continually believed in growth and the efforts to reach a higher platform and that is exactly the growth I want for Unitrend in the next decade. We do not aim to be the number one company in the market but the most aspiring one."

Special Interviews

Courageous Enterprising Optimistic The women who are redefining the age old term

By Ashfaque Zaman

In December 2011, before Teach For Bangladesh (TFB) was born, Maimuna Ahmad took a trip from Dhaka to Pune, India. After spending the two years working as a mathematics teacher in a Washington D.C. public high school, she had moved to Bangladesh earlier that year leaving her family behind in the United States, “Growing up between Bangladesh and America, I was clear from a very early age that I would spend some part of my adult life living in and trying to contribute to Bangladesh. I moved to

Spreading Positivity: Maimuna with her colleagues

In conversation with MAIMUNA AHMAD, Founder and CEO, Teach For Bangladesh

Dhaka initially to explore where I could personally make the most impact.” It was that drive to make an impact that took Maimuna across the border to visit classrooms in a low-income community in Pune, and led her to meet a young student named Chaitrali. “Chaitrali exuded warmth

and positive energy,” Maimuna recalls, “After volunteering to give me a tour, she instantly took my hand and was telling me about the neighborhood and how she was the manager of her school’s football team.” The child proved to be a popular guide. Neighbors

invited them into their homes and offered tea and biscuits. Finally, they arrived at Chaithrali’s house, a tiny space with meager belongings. “The contrast between this bubbly outspoken child and her home struck me immediately. Her home was a tiny dark room with a bed,

momentum globally – for the context of Bangladesh. Five years, 4,500 students and 28 partner schools later, Maimuna has built Teach For Bangladesh into a highly selective leadership development program that recruits exceptional Bangladeshi graduates and young professionals to fight for educational equity and systemic change, starting with a two-year full-time teaching commitment to Bangladesh’s most vulnerable students.

Maimuna Ahmad

LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD: WHICH SIDE IS GREENER

picture of her father was hanging on the wall.”

stove, and a single chair. A picture of her father was hanging on the wall,” recollects Maimuna. The teacher who had accompanied them explained that Chaithrali’s father had passed away. Chaithrali’s mother worked as domestic helper nearby and rarely came home before evening, leaving the child in charge of taking care of herself after school. It was suddenly evident to Maimuna what was next for her, “Something just clicked. Of course, I had always known that there were tens of thousands of children just like Chaitrali being deprived of a quality education in Bangladesh. But intellectually knowing something is different from knowing something in your

heart. Sometimes it can take going to a different part of the world to realize a truth that’s been at home all along. At that moment, I knew that if I were not a part of trying to make a difference in the lives of children in Bangladesh, I would regret it for the rest of my life.” Over the next two months, Maimuna wrote the first business plan for Teach For Bangladesh, building off the model of Teach For America, the program that initially brought her into the classroom, and Teach For India, which she was visiting when she met Chaitrali. She consulted Bangladeshi educators, entrepreneurs and leaders to adapt the model – that was already gathering fast

There is a common misconception that the development world is less competitive than the corporate sector, less results-oriented and less efficient because our results are measured on a different scale and because we’re not focused on generating profit. Still, we have to hold ourselves accountable for the results of our work. Bangladesh is truly an example of what development work can achieve through vision and innovation. At Teach For Bangladesh, they continually seek global best practices and learnings in management and strategy from the corporate sector. “I am curious to know if that same flow is happening in the opposite direction, from the nonprofit world to the corporate one. For example, I know so many inspiring non-profit organizations are redefining what it means to have a values-based work culture. Sometimes I see employees in the corporates sector feel disconnected from their work, feeling like cogs in a machine. Even if generating profit is your

primary target, this does not mean the work can’t be meaningful or rooted in values,” observes Maimuna.

THE MAKINGS OF A MATRIARCH? Maimuna is not surprised that the nonprofit sector is comprised of more women than other sectors. Women are traditionally grouped as caregivers and nurturers are assumed to have more “natural” affinity for the development sector and its “soft” mission and values. However, she think that such assumptions do a great disservice to men and women who lead courageously, open-heartedly, and fiercely in both the private and non-profit worlds. She is proud of the fact that she work with a team of such leaders at Teach For Bangladesh, “They represent for me the greatest hope that Bangladesh has for the future. I am reminded of this hope every time I witness a strong male colleague openly shed tears while describing the challenges faced by his female students, or a strong female colleague defy social pressure and to make her own choices about career and family.” Gender norms and gender-based discrimination are deeply ingrained in most societies – she notes that ours is no exception, “As a female leader, I’ve experienced many of the challenges this brings first-hand, including being propositioned in my office by officials of one of our various national security agencies. However, change is not only possible; it is happening through everyday acts of resistance by men and women both.” www.ibtbd.net

THE DANGER CYCLE OF PRECONCEIVED NOTIONS From her vantage point, one of the most significant challenges in education around the world and in Bangladesh is a crisis of expectation, “We simply do not expect greatness or excellence from children in marginalized communities the same way we expect them from children in affluent communities. You see this in the kind of research that is available out there. I haven’t found any research that compares the performance of students in the elite schools such as Sunbeams, International School of Dhaka and Viquarunessa to government primary schools or NGO schools serving low-income communities.” Instead, we mostly compare government primary schools in cities with counterparts in rural areas. She exemplifies, ”When a child demonstrates excellence in such schools, we are surprised, and we laud the achievement as exceptional. Imagine if instead, excellence was the expectation of all students, and every time a child demonstrated excellence, this was considered further validation of the potential of all children. I believe that such a re-orientation would drive radical change in our classrooms, our communities, and our nation.” She commends Bangladesh on its progress, “While we’ve made great strides in education in Bangladesh, especially in enrollment and gender parity, Bangladesh still has one of the lowest spendings in education compared to overall GDP in

“While we’ve made great strides in education in Bangladesh, especially in enrollment and gender parity, Bangladesh still has one of the lowest spendings in education compared to overall GDP in the world. Most children from low-income communities spend just a couple of hours in school every day.” the world. Most children from low-income communities spend just a couple of hours in school every day. Until we as a society change our expectation that all children have not only the ability to achieve greatness but also the right to equal opportunity, it will be hard to drive sustainable systemic change.”

THE SUCCESS FORMULA: ACHIEVEMENT AND ATTITUDE Maimuna’s deepest wish is to raise a generation of brave children, “I want every child to have an unshakeable belief in themselves, and for that belief to drive them to take risks. This mentality includes intellectual risks in the classroom – venturing to solve a math problem in a different way than the teacher taught, or writing a haiku when asked to describe the characteristics of a cow. This includes risks outside of the classroom – in standing up for their beliefs, in making friends with people who are different, and creating the change that they want for themselves.” She points out that TFB Fellows encounter tragic scenarious, “Our Fellows

work within communities where they come across stories of abuse, prostitution, rape, pregnancy and child marriage. They integrate community advocacy into their classroom content and afterschool activities so our students learn to be changemakers.” Recently, TFB showcased some of the projects that Fellows are implementing to encourage boys and girls to speak up against social injustices in their communities, “As a teacher, you build the most effective change when your students speak up for themselves,” she affirms.

IT STARTS AT HOME She was fortunate enough to have been surrounded by strong adults who encouraged her to pursue excellence from a very young age, “While the strong female role models I had in my life like my incredible mother and brilliant grandmothers, the men in my family also played a significant role. I remember from a very early age being encouraged to participate in discussions and debates that adults would have in our home – on every topic from politics to the economy.” When children experience adults

engaging them with respect and encouragement, it is deeply validating and builds the foundation for confident adults, “When I was starting Teach For Bangladesh and had doubts about my qualifications and experience, an uncle gave me the push I needed by telling me that the “right” leader for any job is the one who is willing to show up every day to do the hard work.”

MAPPING OUT THE CHALKBOARD At Teach For Bangladesh, Maimuna and her team are launching a new program called the School Leadership Residency this January for high-performing alumni of their Fellowship who are interested in reimagining how schools in Bangladesh work. Residents will be spending a year embedded in low-income schools not just in Dhaka, where Fellows currently work, but in rural and remote parts of Bangladesh, working very closely with the head teachers and the existing teachers to think about what it takes to turn around the way a school operates, “I’m hoping those who come out of this intensive experience are going to accelerate their leadership as innovative starters of schools, trainers of teachers, policymakers who reinvent entirely the way you think about schools and school leadership.” Maimuna concludes sharing the future goals with IBT, “Plus, we are also expanding our flagship Fellowship beyond Dhaka to Chittagong and are currently recruiting our sixth cohort who will begin teaching in classrooms in 2019.”

Safety Comes First: Zaiba with her students

In conversation with Zaiba Tahyya, CEO & Founder, FEM Working in the field opened Zaiba’s eyes to the disparity that is the everyday reality for women, “As a 19-year-old attending college it dawned on me that I was living a very sheltered life. I was studying criminology, and I wanted to do an internship in my field. I knew that this would give me a much greater sense of reality.” She had applied to BLAST (Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust) and researched women and rape. She details how every day would ensue with some shocks, “I would have breakdowns every day when I came home. My mother told me to leave the internship if I was going to be this depressed. But I was determined to see this through. I felt like I owed it to the women who face such

atrocities and live with it.” The most disturbing detail of her research came to light as she was interviewing a judge, “When we sat to speak I noticed that woman's nipple size was recorded in the medical file that the judge was examining. I inquired as to why this was necessary not knowing that his answer would leave me in such a shock.” He explained that this was necessary because the victim’s attractiveness would come into question; the prosecuting lawyer could argue that she is not desirable and therefore the perpetrator would not want to engage in any sexual act with her. Zaiba explains that the story still makes her emotional while motivating her, “I was utterly shocked as the judge went on to tell me that the defendant’s lawyers could then show her measurements to prove that she was desirable. Here was a woman that was violated and her physical appearance was coming into questions here. I knew at that moment

that I needed to be a part of a world where women can stand up for themselves.” Zaiba has taken the realities of her research and created a haven for young girls in Korail, the largest slum in Bangladesh. Within the narrow alleys, tin lined houses and hustling of thousands of people, you’ll see the FEM school empowering young girls of today to be the leaders of tomorrow.

LEVELING THE PLAYING FIELD One of the first activities that FEM teach its girls is to ride a bicycle. Some people wonder why this is relevant, but Zaiba believes that this is just as important for their mental stability. Learning to ride a bike is traditionally associated with boys; when girls master the trade, they are motivated to compete with their counterparts. These activities allow many of the girls to let out some of the aggression and frustration from their past experiences of inequality or

even abuse. “The main reason that we teach them self-defense is because there are a lot of mental awareness programs but not enough preventative measure. I know we cannot easily change the mentality for the age-old narrative of a girl being at the wrong place at the wrong time or wearing desirable clothing. This dynamic goes back to the implication that women are weak. Our lessons start with learning how to block. We teach them how to jab, punch and various kicks but these are defense mechanisms. We want them to be able to defend themselves and stop any form of abuse,” she explains. The lessons inspired some of the girls, and they did stand up against a local tailor that was harassing them. The fact that they were able to stand up creates visibility which is a strength. If they can show this power, men and boys alike will be hesitant.

OUT WITH THE OLD A study has shown that if educators emphasize math and science in classrooms, girls are more likely to take on leadership roles. Zaiba wants girls to aspire to be engineers, governing bodies and CEOs. They prioritize teaching these subjects, “I have been to many organizations that have to teach girls how to make jewelry or train them in arts and crafts. Yes, these subjects are necessary and can lead to a career, but I feel like they are also very limiting.” This mentality leads to many girls think that their best and sometimes their only options are crafts that can be made at home, “When www.ibtbd.net

Zaiba Tahyya you merely teach them these skills, you are perpetuating the stereotype that has been in play. An eclectic range of subjects allows them to know that they have choices.”

CONNECTING THE WIRES Girls at FEM learn English with particular attention, and one would be astonished at how that empowers them. They know that English is an international language that they are not customarily taught; command of the language motivates in the sense that they receive an education beyond what they would have expected. It allows them to think beyond their boundaries, “We want them to know that they are entitled to everything that their potential can bring them.” This very idea inspired

Zaiba’s team to teach them circuits and electronics. The girls learned how to make low-cost fire alarms with a temperature sensor, “We focused on making these alarms because Korail is more prone to fires and making this alarms gave the girls a greater sense of purpose in their community. We wanted this mentality to transcend into their homes once they took the alarms there. We hoped to show their families that these girls are just as capable as their fathers, and brothers,” postulates Zaiba. Once you create an environment that fosters and empowers girls as equals you’ll see a change in the community.

FINANCING AN ATYPICAL ENTERPRISE “I wanted to focus on a self-sustainable model from the beginning. I remember

“The main reason that we teach them self-defense is because there are a lot of mental awareness programs but not enough preventative measure. I know we cannot easily change the mentality for the age-old narrative of a girl being at the wrong place at the wrong time or wearing desirable clothing.”

asking for funding from a particular organization. They responded by telling me that they would not fund a project in a slum. faced. Furthermore, they had no visibility in that specific area, and therefore it would serve no purpose for them,”details Zaiba about the funding difficulties she faced. It is important to build relationships with

beneficiaries that care about your cause. She wants to show that FEM can be indepedent, “Nevertheless, when you demonstrate that you can run on your own, that shows a sustainable stance. We charge our students a very minimal fee to keep FEM running.”

DEBUNKING NATURAL SELECTION Zaiba articulates that the challenges of a becoming a female CEO go back to the ideas of Darwin’s survival of the fittest. The mentality that men are the most suitable regarding vocational work is the most significant barrier. Draw from my own experience, she mentions, “I was never taken seriously when I would tell people that I am a CEO of a development sector. Even women would categorize my work into teaching girls, and they would say that my job is gender appropriate. I refuse to adhere to their being a gender for any job because intellect and capability are not a matter of sexes.” Moreover, this concept that women have an age-appropriate timeline for events in there is a conservative notion. Marriage, children, education and career paths are choices and the time should not be a determining factor. She believes women are the ones who suffer abuse, violation, and crime in a different sense than men which makes them more equipped to tackle such challenges.

Jimmy Choo Gold Edition

Special Event

Research Almanac

Applying Research to Reality By Asaduzzaman

he two-day long BIDS Research ALMANAC was held on 6-7 December 2017 at Lakeshore hotel in Dhaka with the theme of “Bridging the Research-Policy Divide”. The aim of the conference was to provide an opportunity to undergo the public scrutiny of BIDS work and to highlight new research ideas and findings. The event allowed a broad spectrum of academics, practitioners, experts and civil society members to be engaged in BIDS research. Spread over a total of six technical sessions, this year’s ALMANAC had 21 papers by BIDS researchers. The sessions were titled Agriculture, External Price Shocks & Rural Well-being, Labour Market Issues, Financial Markets & Financial Inclusion, Climate Change, Natural Disaster and Environment, Entitlement, Welfare & Violence and Exports, Firm Performance & Productivity Growth. Dr. Mashiur Rahman, Economic Affairs Adviser to the Hon’ble Prime Minister, inaugurated the event as the Chief Guest and Dr. Mohammed Farashuddin, former governor, Bangladesh Bank was present as the special guest. M Syeduzzaman, Former Finance Minister, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh was present as the Guest of Honour. Dr. K A S Murshid, Director General of BIDS chaired the inaugural session and made the opening remarks. The concluding session “Bridging the Research-Policy Divide” was chaired by the eminent economist Professor Rehman Sobhan with distinguished panelists drawn from the public and private sector. The Conference was attended by eminent scholars, policymakers, development practitioners, civil society members, activists, advocacy groups and journalists and generated a lot of interest and provided an effective platform of engagement with key stakeholders. The following pages have some of the key messages delivered in the ALMANAC.

The Framework of a New Nation: a Deeper Connection to Research PROFESSOR REHMAN SOBHAN

Chairman CPD and Former Director General, BIDS

BIDS played a very crucial role in the policy framework of Bangladesh. In my days at BIDS, I did much research which sometimes made a policy impact. At present, the question include: How much quality research are we receiving? How far its relevance to policymakers? Is there any broader goal of people at large? What are the institutional capacities? What is the response to policy-driven researches? With my experiences from BIDS, I found that the responses of policymakers are critical. There is the demand side and the supply side issues. I initiated research funding without any donors assistance. We only paid Tk 400 a month to a researcher and his policy impact was profound; in this regard, commitment is the issue. China and Vietnam are doing very good in policy research and integrating the research findings into

The Value of Research:

KEY FINDINGS OF A NATION ‘Transitions between informal and formal employment’ by Minhaj Mahmud · Workers transitioning from one job to another are most likely to remain in the same type of employment. · 30% of those leaving private employment move to self-employment. · Transition in employment is more common among prime-aged workers. · Higher turnover among private wage employees may be an evidence of upward mobility.

Photo from PKSF

policy implementation. The public reasoning is also essential for research. Engagement of people with the policy implementation is significant. I commissioned 29 task forces in 1991 and assembled 250 papers from professionals to come up with the policy recommendations. The idea is that donor agencies are not required to patronize it further. The tragedy was that the task force's report was prevented by the newly elected government. Later on, based on this under CPD (Centre for Policy Research), we introduce policy reviews in 2001. The consideration is whether we are we overdoing or following recommendations of that task force or not. We connect the policymakers, private sectors and the stakeholders in policy issues. The public reasoning in addressing problems are very crucial. Research has limitations as it does not have any capacity to implement. Research organization can only do constant hammering to address the right issues. Connecting people with research transforms the country and allows their voices to be heard. As a researcher, we should keep in mind the interest of the people and make a bridge of their interest with the policymakers. It is a task and commitment to the people.

The Heart of the Matter: How Internal Structures Create External Changes DR. MASHIUR RAHMAN

Economic Affairs Adviser to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh

The inside story is essential for reaching a judgment. There is lack of using actuaries even in insurances sector. Correct data is required to make the right decisions. The condition of the Bureau of Statistics is very jarring due to lack of sound professionals. Bangladesh achieved success but retaining the flow is a challenge. It requires knowledge-based administration and sharp implementation. The knowledge is not expanding at the expected level. On the contrary, there is no shortage of talents, but the missing link is organizations are not growing in the expected level, rather reversely going in a deviating way. Much of the regulatory commission has been set up, but its legal power and authority are not defined. The commision should play an active role in determining the price of electricity, gas or mobile phones. However, that role is not clear. www.ibtbd.net

There is still fundamental maladjustment in the tax administration, but the expenses of the government is rising. It also implies to rise revenue income, but that is not happening at the same speed. Investment and saving friendly policy is required to shoot up per capita income. As well as, rationalization of Tax policy is required to be addressed. It also implies that we need to improve our tax management and administration.

largest importer, and a significant thrust is required to raise investment in textiles that will lessen our import dependency. The zero tariff import for RMG (Ready Made Garments Industry) is no more accepted now. The banking industry has expanded in Bangladesh over the years, but the capacity of the regulatory body Bangladesh Bank was not developed at the same rate. Today digitalization is a reality. Nevertheless before adopting any technology there, the determining environment has to be considered. The Non-Performing Loan (NPL) situation is not as alarming as many other countries. It is not hard to solve the problem if there is a formula.

The Value of Research:

KEY FINDINGS OF A NATION

The Role of Banks: Why Growth Starts with Sustainable Finance MOHAMMED FARASHUDDIN Former Governor Bangladesh Bank

Bangladesh is doing well in export, and there is possibility of doing more. Foreign investment will create competition and ushers a window of opportunity for marketing. A critical challenge of exports is economic policy and exchange rate of currency. The overvaluation of the currency of a country is self-defeating in perspective of export. Bangladesh is the second

‘Labour Supply and its changes during 2006 to 2016: Focus on gender and regional difference’ by Md. Iqbal Hossain · The youth are more interested in salaried jobs compared to self-employed ones, and this difference is more prevalent in females. · Job market mismatch can reduce technical education. · Remittance has a negative impact on female employment ‘Regional variations of Banking Services and Poverty Reduction: Evidence from Sub District Level Data of Bangladesh’ by Kazi Iqbal of BIDS, Paritosh K Roy, ISRT and Shamsul Alam of GED · Deposit services have a strong negative association with poverty. · Having a bank account itself can promote savings and income. - The Anti-poverty program must include ‘financial inclusion.’

Connect Facilitators for a Progressive Economy ZAHID HUSSAIN

Lead Economist Macro Economic & Fiscal Management World Bank Dhaka Office

World Bank has Macroeconomic Models and Macro-Fiscal model. There is the presence of disagreement between the researchers and policymakers. It is a matter of perception, context, and evidence. Researchers state that policy makers are avoiding the policy implications of their research. Policy makers respond that their recommendations are inconclusive and they are speaking in their jargons. The most important factor is typicality of policy in political context. Every country has public think tanks, and a variety of private think tanks.The general assumptions are that the more the players, the better are the chances of research results. The feedback mechanism and the consultation process is also important. In Bangladesh’s fiscal policy, we have a pre-budget and post-budget consultation. There are pressure and interest group prevailing that matter the most. Evidence-based policy is required. But

there is a challenge if evidence is faulty or incomplete then depending on this, policy drawings will be wrong. In Bangladesh, there are problems with data. If data is not credible then inferring credible decisions are not possible.

However these discussions do not lead to desired products. In any policy design, the private sector must be engaged. The private sector is a part of the policy. In Vietnam and China, the private sector is conducting policy monitoring. Dhaka Chamber proposed R&D Bangladesh which made public and private dialogue is a very successful model that can change the notion of policy design. We are also proposing a committee to monitor the large infrastructure projects. We want to create a platform to bring researchers and engage private sectors and like to involve the private universities. We are working to narrow down the research gap as the private sector is the primary stakeholder of the policy design, framework and implementation.

The Value of Research:

KEY FINDINGS OF A NATION

The GDP Dialogue: How Much and Where to Invest ABUL KASEM KHAN

President Dhaka Chamber of Commerce & Industry

Dhaka Chamber gave a vision strategy in 2010 known as ‘Bangladesh in 2030’; it stated that Bangladesh would be the 30th largest economy in 2030 and the 23rd largest economy in 2050. It also inferred that the GDP would be larger than that of Malaysia. South Korea has invested 9 % of their GDP in building infrastructure since 1960 where as our investment in building infrastructure is only 2%. Now we are comparing ourselves with South Korea, Vietnam and China and wonder why they have developed faster than us? Research should be market driven and should engage the private sector. We are meeting with different government components and various ministries.

‘Corporate Governance & Sustainability of the Global Value Chain: Bangladesh Readymade Garment Industry’ by Lilac Nachum, Nazeen Ahmed and Yoshiteru Uramoto · International value creation and value appropriation in the global garment supply chain are primarily aligned with the shares created and appropriated by the manufacturers and leading firms and are on par with each other. · Misalignment is found in value creation and value appropriation measured respectively by productivity and wages. · To correct this distortion, a policy intervention, and outline of policy measures containing protecting of labor rights are required. · The ability to create value in collaboration with partners in the supply chain is required. ‘Mobile Phones, Household Welfare and Women’s Empowerment: Evidence from Rural Off-grid Regions of Bangladesh’ by Monzur Hossain of BIDS and Hussain Samad of World Bank

Think Tanks: The Driving Force Forward DR. K.A.S. MURSHID Director General BIDS

Research papers have covered a broad spectrum of fundamental development issues time and again. A broader question that is addressed is the role of think tanks in today’s world. Think tanks have become a powerful knowledge and influence broker in many parts of the world. The Chinese have adopted a think tank strategy whereby all conceivable topics of research and analysis are sought to be encompassed by numerous think tanks at the national, regional and local levels. The urgent need is to minimize the gaps in policy and research is very important for going forward. · Mobile phones are enhancing income from livestock and poultry, fisheries, rental services and general business in off-grid rural areas in Bangladesh. It improves income by facilitating marketing of products, eliminating travel costs, and saving time. · Phones are enhancing women empowerment–perhaps through income channel.

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Going Global

Connecting the Dots of Bangladeshis Across the Globe

By Taposh Ghosh The Economic Relations Division (ERD) under the Ministry of Finance, in cooperation with UNDP recently organized an International Seminar on ‘NRB (Non-Resident Bangladeshi) Engagement in National Development: Strategies and Way Forward’ under the ministry’s Knowledge for Development (K4DM) Project. The one-day event had a paper presentation on current NRB scenario and three working sessions on engaging NRBs through philanthropy, investment, and expert affiliation. The seminar was attended by numerous government officials and expatriates and took place at the Bangabandhu International Conference Center (BICC).

“TODAY, SAUDI ARABIA HAS THE LARGEST NUMBER OF BANGLADESHI EXPATRIATES, WITH MALAYSIA HAVING THE SECOND LARGEST, WHEREAS THE U.K, AND USA ARE FURTHER DOWN THE LIST” ABUL MAAL ABDUL MUHITH

Minister of Finance Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh

Changing Patterns of Bangladeshi Diaspora

We have a diaspora community ranging from the figures of 8 to 10 million in numerous countries across global and their contribution to the economy of Bangladesh has always been noteworthy. Previously, the United Kingdom boasted the largest number of Bangladeshi non-residents, but the figures are changing fast. Today, Saudi Arabia has the largest number of

Bangladeshi expatriates, with Malaysia having the second largest, whereas the UK, and US are further down the list.

Engaging the Population Abroad

I believe annual conferences are critical in engaging the expatriates. The frequency of such events need to be increased, and such conferences do not necessarily have to be organized in Bangladesh alone, perhaps organizing

them abroad can have greater effectiveness as well. The government and the Ministry of Finance, in particular, is working towards creating incentives for expatriates to invest in the Bangladeshi economy. Mechanisms of recognition already exist, but these need to be developed further. We are also working towards engaging the expatriates in the national election. They have always had their voting rights, and a good number do register for the voting process, but to date, no initiative has been taken to provide voting facilities in their country of residence. However, in the upcoming election, we hope to set up a few voting centers in North America, the UK and other parts of Europe, as well as the middle-east, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia more prominently.

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“THERE ARE BANGLADESHIS INFLUENCING POLICIES AND OPINIONS IN OTHER NATIONS, AND NOW IS THE PERFECT TIME TO ENGAGE WITH SUCH PEOPLE AND DRIVE ECONOMIC GROWTH THROUGH THE DIASPORA COMMUNITY” SUDIPTO MUKERJEE Country Director UNDP Bangladesh

Engaging the Huge Pool of NRBs in India

It has always been easier for me to work with expatriates, as I am one myself, only residing from the other side of the border, and this allows me to recognize the feeling that an expatriate never loses their touch with their motherland despite the number of years they have lived or worked abroad. While working in Iraq, I became familiar with an organization named Iraqis Rebuilding Iraq, which worked with Iraqi expatriates in rebuilding post-war Iraq, which again shows that we as non-residents never lose our connections with our nations. For Bangladesh, perhaps the largest number of non-residents just live across the border in India, and there’s a 90% chance that if you see a successful Bengali, they originate from this side of Bengal. Economist Amartya Sen is a prime example, and one should never underestimate the love these people have for Bangladeshi and their abilities to contribute to the country.

On a Policy Level: How NRBs Can Drive Change

Bangladeshi NRBs are doing well to the extent that they have made it to numerous policy-making level positions in many countries. In the recently concluded Inter-Parliamentary Union Assembly and Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference in Dhaka, I had the opportunity of meeting Bengalis holding posts of MPs from Canada and the UK. These are Bangladeshis influencing policies and opinions in other nations, and now is the perfect time to engage with such people and drive economic growth through the diaspora community.

“NRBS ARE ALREADY CONTRIBUTING BACK TO THE NATION IN VARIOUS FORMS, AS A USAID RESEARCH SHOWS THAT AN AVERAGE BANGLADESHI DIASPORA ADDS ABOUT $4,000 IN PHILANTHROPIC CONTRIBUTIONS TO BANGLADESH” ANIR CHOWDHURY

Policy Advisor, a2i Program Prime Minister's Office, Bangladesh

Engaging NRBs

The current generation of NRBs or diaspora as we like to call them are all economically well-established in their current resident nations. We need to engage them as they will be able to help us develop the trajectory of development for Bangladesh by pushing the curve upwards further. NRBs are already contributing back to the nation in various forms, as a USAID research shows that an average Bangladeshi diaspora adds about $4,000 in philanthropic contributions to Bangladesh.

Lesson Learned: Taking the Best Practices from Other Nations

Bangladesh has a lot to learn from numerous other developing nations. Lebanon, for example, has a dedicated crowdfunding platform towards their diaspora, which raises contributions for social causes such as water and sanitation, building schools, etc. and have goodwill ambassadors to carry out the effectiveness. The African diaspora

has contributed over $10 billion for philanthropic contributions. For India, the brain drain has now converted back into brain gain, with over 4,000 professors and 35,000 doctors returning to the economy and contributing. The Indian government’s initiative for involving NRIs in SME investment is also playing a huge role. And in China, about 70% of its entire Foreign Direct Investment is owned by its diaspora.

A Better Bangladesh: Ensuring a Prosperous Future

The questions that need to be asked now are where will the diaspora engage, and once the first engagement is done, how to make it sustainable. Will a one-stop-shop be a suitable solution? These are questions that need answers through engagement, and we at the same time are working on increasing NRB engagement through three avenues – philanthropy with recognition, an investment with reward, and expert affiliation with remuneration.

“A NATIONAL INITIATIVE HAS TO BE TAKEN WITH A STRONG GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP TO START INCREASING NRB ENGAGEMENT. WITH THE HELP OF EMBASSIES, MISSIONS, AND CONSULATES, THE GOVERNMENT OF BANGLADESH SHOULD IMMEDIATELY START TAKING NECESSARY INITIATIVES TO DEVELOP A DATABASE OF THE INTERNATIONAL DIASPORA COMMUNITY” DR. MOBASSER MONEM Professor University of Dhaka

“THE MINISTRY IS ALWAYS READY TO HELP THE EXPATRIATES IN THEIR QUERIES REGARDING RECEIVING KNOWLEDGE AND ASSISTANCE. WE ALSO HAVE THREE DEDICATED PROBASHI KALLYAN HELP DESKS AT THREE INTERNATIONAL AIRPORTS ACROSS THE COUNTRY” DR. NOMITA HALDER

Honourable Secretary Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare & Overseas Employment

Creating Better Opportunities Overseas

The Ministry of Expatriates' Welfare & Overseas Employment was developed to help migrant workers overseas and to monitor their welfare, but the ministry is now working towards developing programs dedicated towards expatriates under the Welfare wing. The ministry’s current objectives include the welfare of expatriates and job creation of overseas workers. They are working towards multiple research projects as to how more and better jobs can be made available to our migrant workers.

Supporting NRBs at the Home Stretch

I had the opportunity of meeting an expatriate, having resided in the US for 25 years, returning to Bangladesh to establish a hotel in Rajshahi. Upon our conversation, it was pleasing to know that he faced no harassment or challenges in setting up his business, something which expatriates often fear while investing in Bangladesh. The ministry is always ready to help the expatriates in their queries regarding receiving knowledge and assistance. We also have three dedicated Probashi Kallyan help desks at three international airports across the country. The ministry also acts in providing CIP recognition to expatriates for their contributions in sending remittance, importing Bangladeshi goods and investing in the economy, something which we believe is extremely important in further increasing NRB engagement.

The Global Bangladeshi Population

It is perceived that about 10 million Bangladeshis are living abroad of which approximately 2.4 million Bangladeshis are living abroad permanently either as citizens or with other valid documents in as many as 162 countries. While reasons for their departure vary, the individuals within the diaspora communities maintain a particular affinity with Bangladesh and a desire to maintain a connection and ultimately be able to contribute back to Bangladesh. This massive Bangladeshi diaspora is growing and engaging them in a well-coordinated, concerted and effective way would allow them to contribute while bolstering the developmental efforts of the country as well.

Challenges Restricting NRB Engagement

Numerous policy and institutional level challenges exist, which are hindering increased diaspora engagement, starting with the absence of an online database that contains information on long-term migrants. The difficulty also lies in collecting data from and engaging permanent migrants who do not have legal stay permits in their country of residence. Also, there are no clear policy provision relating to diaspora engagement means that involving the members of the diaspora and keeping them interested at all times in every step of the national initiative would be a critical challenge which is easier said than done.

Government’s Commitment towards Bridging the Gap

A national initiative has to be taken with a strong government ownership to start increasing NRB engagement. With the help of Embassies, Missions, and Consulates, the Government of Bangladesh should immediately start taking necessary initiatives to develop a database of the international diaspora community. Issues of expatriates facing mistreatment, harassment and demands of illegal gratification by officials at the country’s entry points and insecurity of properties and local investments are also major issues that must be addressed. In general, a culture and platform of confidence need to be established to start having greater NRB engagement towards the development of the nation. www.ibtbd.net

Interview

Shahagir Bakth Faruk NRB

Shahagir Bakth Faruk is a name that resonates the success of Bangladeshis across a global platform. Faruk truly represents Bangladeshi diaspora in the UK; he was the former president of Britishâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce and former parliamentary candidate from Bethnal Green and Bow. Popularly known as Faruk Bhai, he is a community figure, who broke the ice by contesting in the election of the British parliament; a first that has led to the election of 3 MPs of Bangladeshi origin in the British Parliament.

The Rippling of Success

A global Bangladeshi based in the U.K. tells us how the older generation has created platforms for the emerging ones in pursuit of a better tomorrow

Born in Sylhet, he went to the UK in 1973 for higher studies but chose the way of business and entered into the retail industry where he achieved excellent success. After that, he devoted himself to form a training institute to nurture better human resources. He is now a course director of the Royal Society of Public Health. Shahagir won the award in food safety in catering, health safety at workplace and many more. Shahagir expounds on his journey of success, which was not a quick gain, instead a journey against the wind. He described how the world of business captured his attention,

“I went to London for Ph.D. in Middleborough University, but in 1975 onwards I engaged myself in business. I reaped a good catch in the retail business of electronics.” He postulates that we need to use a model that is unique to our nation, “The present generation of the Bangladeshi diaspora are extensively interacting with the mainstream of the UK and harvesting good results; many of them are doing very well in many countries particularly in the UK and North America.” Shahagir explains that the Bangladeshi community has come a long way, “Our success rate is higher than other migrant communities and the new generation are well educated and very competitive. NRBs have also learned to adapt to the day-to-day functionality and patterns of the U.K.” The letter “I” does not exist in Shahagir’s definition of Critical Success Factor (CSF) of a Chief Executive Officer (CEO). “Teamwork, team spirit, team motivation are essential for a CEO of any company. These are

required to maximize the profitability, productivity, and professionalism. Rewards will follow only if a CEO attains and achieve these criteria. A CEO does not necessarily have to chase visible and non-visible factors to get his rewards and reputation.” As a globally recognized expert on food safety, he went on to say that food and catering are essential in every country, “The huge population in Bangladesh needs healthy, hygienic and safe food and water. A big chunk of Bangladeshi population does not have access to safe food. They consume hazardous and contaminated food. The government has a responsibility to make sure to protect the public by making mass awareness and taking proactive measures. Restaurants should have staff training program on food hygiene, health and safety and HACCP. The certificates need to be provided by recognized awarding bodies.” www.ibtbd.net

His story of success was years in the making, “I engaged myself in employment and training business to empower people. My main mission was to develop the skill Bangladeshis who migrated here. My institute, Shahnan Employment & Training Bureau was the first Bangladeshi owned training and employment institute in the U.K. My book ‘Brick Lane: Bari to Basha’ captures this journey.” Joining the political platform allowed Shahagir to further the visibility of his community, “I contested British Parliament twice under the nomination of the conservative party in 2001 and 2005. As I competed in Tower Hamlets and it paved the way for first Bangladeshi Bengali MP in 2010. He hopes that the future generations push the envelope for Bangladeshis in the UK,“Our participation encouraged the younger generation. I am the only

member of London Historical Society. I am the only Bengali judge in British Curry Award, and Now I am a senior adviser of it. As a President of British–Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce, I came here with two trade mission.” A ripple effect sometimes happens when one person steps up. Shahagir is proud to see that this has occurred in his field, “Following my success, I have witnessed many Bangladeshis engage with the British industry and achieve success in this business sector. I have four kids, three sons and one daughter, who were all were born in the UK. All of my children are attaining or have attained collegiate education and gone on higher tier jobs. My youngest son is currently in university, and he hopes to achieve the same success as his siblings.” He believes that Bangladeshi have the same potential to occupy higher positions that are often reserved for foreigners, “Our younger generation in the UK is doing very good. Our third generation is obtaining prominent positions in the UK and North America. But

The migrated population of Bangladeshis here is 500,000 and 70% of them are the youth. They are persevering in fields ranging from medicine to engineering and diplomatic policymaking.”

Shahagir Bakth Faruk with David Cameron and his fellow travelers during a business trip.

Veteran British politician Shahagir Bakth Faruk of Bangladeshi origin, is seen among Conservative leaders with British Prime Minister Teresa May.

the issue is we are not turning them towards Bangladesh.” Shahagir believes that it is important to guide these young minds towards investing in Bangladesh, “If we are successful in bringing them to Bangladesh and investing their brain, expertise, skills, knowledge, and money, it will bring benefits for the country.” Despite the apparent potential in Bangladesh, Shahagir observes that not only have we been unable to utilize the talent in the U.K. He further infers that it is somewhat of a brain drain because we cannot get them to invest in Bangladesh. He believes that this is due to a lack of connectivity to their origins and the fact that this bridge between nations has not been addressed. He mainly understands this immense potential because of the struggles that he has

seen amongst the first generation of Bangladeshis. “We have worked rigorously for more than four decades to stand on the platforms that we have now. Not once did we lose hope and that is why have this space in British society.” Shahagir hopes to see that same resilience in the younger generation. When he sees the large migrant population in the UK, he finds a great sense of hope for his people, “The migrated population of Bangladeshis here is 500,000 and 70% of them are the youth. They are persevering in fields ranging from medicine to engineering and diplomatic policymaking. You also see a large number of them building successful businesses. They have the competitive edge to shine everywhere, and it is up to us to give them that space in Bangladesh also.”

Airline Industry

Mofizur Rahman

Managing Director NOVOAIR

A New Altitude: How Flights are Changing the Way We Travel Group Captain Mofizur Rahman (retd.) is a unique personality known for his checkered twenty-five years long career with Bangladesh Air Force (BAF) as a pilot. His years of service in the apex position of various levels of Air Force command enabled him to learn the management, operation, and administration of large-scale entities. He also served in deputation as Chief Logistics Officer in Mozambique, United Nations and an aviation commander in Kuwait. Mofizur Rahman is a graduate of the Defense Services Command and Staff College and the National Defense College. He is a graduate of the University of Dhaka and achieved a Masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Degree from National University. He has also obtained a higher degree in Management from the University of Cranfield, UK. He is both a commercial pilot and aviation management professional. He upholds a dynamic understanding of his field of work. Since the beginning of NOVOAIR, Mofizur Rahman has been devoted to promoting aviation in Bangladesh. Apart from NOVOAIR, he also acts as the Managing Director of NovoHolidays Ltd, NovoSky Ltd. Actively involved in various trade bodies, namely Aviation Operators Association, Association of Travel Agents of Bangladesh, Tour Operators Association of Bangladesh and different social clubs.

NOVOAIR is regarded as both luxurious and an affordable airline at the same time. What helped you acquire this image in a market that has seen such rapid fluctuation in demand in the past one decade?

The mindset of people living in the economy in which we operate plays a major role when it comes to understanding their demands. Investment in both legacy carriers and budget carriers is equal to the maintenance and cost of operation. The only difference you can make is the services offered. Here we can provide services at nominal cost in comparison to western countries. Thus we offer a carefully tailored product which offers both comfort and affordability at the same time for our passengers.

The aviation industry is also closely related to the tourism sector, and with better services, you are also assisting in growing the tourism sector. What are some of the facilities you are offering to these customers?

Firstly, if you look at it from the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s perspective, the airline's industry across the globe injects a tremendous input into the tourism sector. In the global tourism sector, the contribution of the airlines industry is 54%, which makes it a $549 billion contribution to the industry. Even though we are yet to reach such

contribution to the global level, indirectly we are contributing to the tourism sector as well where one airline job simultaneously creates 11 tourism jobs. This dynamic helps to facilitate businesses, government travels, meeting friends and relatives. There are many areas where airlines contribute significantly to avail certain facilities to make this service available to the common mass. We have a range of products for helping tourism in the country to grow. Providing EMI (Equal Monthly Instalments) to customers for six months on specific credit cards without interest can be one of ways to promote it. On the other hand, making these services available on a broader range can also help to facilitate the people who do not have access to credit cards. We also have arrangements with mobile operators such as Robi Axiata Limited that allows us to offer 10-12% discount on ticket prices.

As the economy prospers further, do you feel that more people from middle-income classes will choose to travel by air now?

If we look 5 years back from now, traveling by air was referred to elitist travel, whereas presently it is graduating to become a vehicle for the mass. Half a decade ago, it was only a white-collar opportunity, but now people who did not even travel using easy public transport

now prefer traveling by air. With rising middle-income group in the country, we see more and more travelers choose air over other modes of transportation.

You had started ten years back, and now your company has established its brand name. Which international destinations are you planning to target next?

What we have identified is that there is a tremendous capacity gap in the domestic market and it is growing very fast. Two years back, there were no flights from Saidpur, but today there are as many as 6 to 7 flights a day. On the contrary, in the sub-regional area like Kuala Lumpur or Singapore, the foreign carriers, as well as the domestic ones are increasing the capacity, where domestic demand is rising, and road conditions are deteriorating. Simultaneously, this has made people more inclined to travel by air which helps them save time and ensure safety. Currently, we are focusing on the domestic routes to cater the domestic demand by keeping the sub-regional areas aside. However, in very near future, we expect to connect those destinations.

As we know your airlines is a people-oriented company, what measures have you taken to develop the skills of your human resources?

It is not only a people-oriented company we rather say that it is the peoplesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; company. To run an organization

specifically an airline you need to have very specialized human resources. In our country, we have too many people, but hardly you can term them as the human resource. During the time of recruitment, we usually look into the quality and then we provide in-house training to mold them. In this way, we gradually expand our operation. We discourage the idea of expansion with unskilled forces, instead do the intake and train our employees to take the responsibilities before going for development. We also welcome innovative ideas from an employee regardless his/her position.

The operators in the airline industry are facing a cut-throat competition price war recently. How are you maintaining it?

There is vigorous competition in the market these days. Everyone is focusing on gaining market share, which is not a sustainable way by itself. For a model to be viable, it has to be rational in helping the industry to survive. We are gradually moving into a phase where everybody will understand that a fare war and race to the bottom is not a viable option. To maintain rationality the industry needs to rise above the current price level, upscale the fare to a certain amount. Then only the industry will be sustainable. I think we are gradually moving in that direction and all the players are getting an essence of what needs to be done next. www.ibtbd.net

Business Culture

IN SEARCH OF A

CEO www.ibtbd.net

Photo from: ceo.com

By Asaduzzaman

The birth of organized and formal trade goes back to the antiquity of Roman civilization when the monetary control remained mostly in the hand of Kings. Trade, lending, and connectivity were later improved with the help of innovation; as the private sector businesses harnessed the historical model to generate profit over centuries. The genome of business success previously brought by the icons is still helping the model survive even in todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s money-centric, consumerism driven world.

After the civil war in the USA, a new business baron was created by the private sector, which changed the business management notion entirely. A dynamic business character was introduced into the business model called the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), whose role was to ensure profitability for business alongside its sustainable growth. Despite the CEOs coming from different backgrounds, they all must correlate to a specific goal. Irrespective of ages, it is the management characteristic that they must possess to combine the internal and external forces in a critical and uncertain competitive environment. Interestingly, a CEO must be able to balance and influence the complicated organizational relationship alongside the conflicting interest of the stakeholders. The irony is that until today most CEOs perform well during favorable business conditions, but very few can do well during stressful times. This complex theory gave birth to the concept of changemaker those who are innovative in the very meaning of it and bring changes in the organization often known as change management, another buzzword for success. Several factors like low living costs and high payment for expats enable Bangladesh to be a lucrative spot for foreigners. As of today, there are at least 300,000 high-paid foreign residents, working in Bangladesh ranging from technicians to CEOs who transfer around $10 billion as outbound remittances every year. The amount can also vary when it comes to

the inclusion of unofficial channels of moving money as well. Currently, almost 18,000 Sri Lankan families are living in Bangladesh, some of them being in service for more than decades now. Furthermore, East Asians are also drawing an excellent salary and engaging in a healthy business in Bangladesh for quite some time. All this has allowed the country to secure second ranking amongst other destinations in the homebound Indian remittances category. More factors contribute to this scenario; another 500,000 unemployed graduates are added to the list of job seekers every year, whereas the availability of jobs is limited. Contrary to that foreigners occupy the high end jobs in regulated areas like financial institutions and defense sectors. Against this backdrop, when asked, an entrepreneur expanded that this sort of practice exists due to the better understanding of professionalism and productivity instilled in foreigners. The lack of seriousness and punctuality is the missing link when it comes to working with an entirely Bangladeshi workforce. Thus, the entrepreneurs are compelled to go through many processes of outsourcing like an advertisement in foreign media or seeking the help of many recruiters working in Bangladesh to meet the demand-supply gap of our industry and hire foreigners. It is disappointing that no major initiatives have been taken so far to minimize the industry-academia gaps, whereas we never fail to

Planning Makes Perfect:

THE FIVE STEPS TO SUCCESS Adhering to the five significant steps that apply to all major businesses, they can create a considerable succession plan, accommodate for the financial independence of the retiring entrepreneurs, and position the business towards sustainable success and growth.

1. ESTABLISH GOALS AND OBJECTIVES Go through the current succession plan and the reasons for achieving desired objectives. Collectively build visions, and objectives for the business and recognize the significance of continued family involvement in leading the company forward. However, also consider including professional management. Set individual retirement goals and cash flow requirements for retiring family owners. Define personal and business goals of next-generation management. Hire and retain a group of professional advisors. 2. DECISIONS DECISIONS: PROCESS MAKES PERFECT Introduce governance processes for the involvement of family members in the decision-making process. Establish a dialogue for dispute resolution if required. Make a document of the entire succession planning. Communicate about the succession plan to individual stakeholders. 3. PLAN FOR SUCCESS Identify potential successors from within managers and owners of the business. Identify active and non-active roles for different family members. Figure out the required additional support needed by the successor from family members. 4. CREATE A BUSINESS AND OWNER ESTATE PLAN Implement tax implications on the owner/business upon sale or transfer of ownership at the time of death, or divorce. Revise the owner estate planning to minimize taxes and prevent delays in transferring stock to the remaining owners or spouse. Make a buy/sell agreement that is fair, and reflects the value of the business, and reduce taxes. 5. KNOW THE NEXT STEP: THE NEED FOR A TRANSITION PLAN Consider options such as outright purchase, gift or a combination of these into account. Be mindful all the financing options including the one from an external party or the self-financing option from the retiring owners on a deferred payout basis when purchasing a business. Produce a timeline for implementing the succession plan.

express about the unemployment rate. Bangladesh has a history of excellence in the corporate leadership starting from as early as in the 60s. The nation has a competent economy with 90% of entrepreneurs who accounted for the success of RMG were first timers in business. We are leaping forward to the second generation of business leaders who are expected to bring real change in the business environment by restructuring the business procedures in the coming years. However, issues such as skills sets, mindset and lack of encouraging environment remain persistent. Recently, Glen Raiger, President & CEO, Sovern Group, LLC, in an article called 'Critical Success Factor' talked about his research on, 'Most respected CEO,' his findings challenged many common misconceptions about CEOs. Among the most successful CEOs around the globe, Carlos Gershon of Nissan Motors, David Blair of Catalyst Health, Eric Schmidt of Google Inc., and Muhammad Yunus of GrameenBank Bangladesh are a few prominent ones. The success of Yunus taught us that the most significant challenge of being a CEO is to change the way stakeholders think. According to a survey conducted in by Korn Ferry, 87% of executives dramatically raise the odds that they will become high performing chief executives. The research said that the qualities of CEOs lie in taking a decision with speed and conviction, engaging in impactful activities, adapting proactively, and delivering reliably. To demystify the myths related to CEOs we can

THE FOUR ESSENTIAL BEHAVIORS OF A CEO NO DECISION IS THE WORST DECISION As legends about CEOs suggest, a leader always steers the business towards rapid success. However, a majority of high performing CEOs are mostly decisive and do not end up making the right decisions every time. They are preemptive and quicker in making decisions and they, do it consistently. Studies show that executives with the highest IQ are often found to be indecisive and take longer time in making decisions, which affects the performance of the team as a whole. Thus, colleagues mostly prefer having a CEO with adequate knowledge and quicker decision-making abilities rather than someone gifted with intellectual complexity. High performing CEOs understand that taking a wrong decision is better than taking no choices at all. They often end up asking themselves two questions; “What is the impact of a wrong decision being taken?” and “How much will this hold other things up if the CEO doesn’t move on with this?” This approach also encourages the team members to trust their capabilities while taking operational decisions. ENGAGING FOR IMPACT Efficient CEOs always look for creating a balance between the interests of their stakeholders and delivering results of the business. CEOs who excel at bringing others along decide and execute disciplined ways of communications and influencing strategies. It is also essential for a CEO to engage with their employees playfully at work, as a stray word or frowning gesture can cause unintended damage to the performance of a team. As Kaufman would quote, “Every comment and facial expression you make will be read and magnified ten times by the organization.” PRO-ADAPTATION Research shows that CEOs who excel at adapting to different types of business environment are 6.7 times more likely to achieve success. One of the distinctive qualities that allow successful CEOs from others is their ability to handle situations, not explained in the rulebook. Adaptable CEOs spend as much as 50% in long-term planning. They go through extensive networks and various existing data, to find relevant information that correlates with the operations of the business. As a result, during most times they sense the change and make strategic moves to take advantage of it. THERE IS NO ROOM FOR DOUBT The ability of CEOs to produce reliable results is possibly the most impactful of the four essential CEO behaviors. CEOs with such qualities introduced business management systems that included a tempo of meetings, clear accountability, dashboards of metrics, and multiple channels for monitoring performance and working on rapid course corrections. This methodology gives a new dimension and direction to the business by keeping the employees motivated.

INTERESTINGLY, A CEO MUST BE ABLE TO BALANCE AND INFLUENCE THE COMPLICATED ORGANIZATIONAL RELATIONSHIP ALONGSIDE THE CONFLICTING INTEREST OF THE STAKEHOLDERS. THE IRONY IS THAT UNTIL TODAY MOST CEOS PERFORM WELL DURING FAVORABLE BUSINESS CONDITIONS, BUT VERY FEW CAN DO WELL DURING STRESSFUL TIMES.

refer to a ten-year-long study of the Harvard University titled, “CEO Genome Projects.” The university collaborated up with other renowned universities and business schools to create a database of 17,000 C-suite executives. The findings revealed that 7% of the high performing CEO’s had an undergraduate Ivy League education and 8% of them didn’t even graduate from any college at all. Contrary to popular views, some of them have a law, technical, physics or HR education. It is almost time now that we harness the power of young forces within the industry to train them to become C-suite competent, and cater to the existing demand to bring about a significant change.

Corporate Culture

The Missing Link

Nurturing home grown CEOs is still a far-fetched dream. Here is what we can do about that By Aftab Mahmud Khurshid

As ironic as it may sound, despite having an abundance of people in our pool the local high-end job market in many cases is filled by the expats recently. Is it a comedy of errors like Shakespearian classics? It is a folly created by combined sins of policy implementation and management practice which we have been pursuing over the decades. It is a gap between the market demand and our lack of capability to meet that need. It is a

THE WRITER IS an internationally recognized brand marketing professional

dichotomy. I am trying to dissect this heart burning gap that creates a hole in our body politic. I am a bit critical to analyses this gap and trying earnestly to find out the real missing link. Why does it happen? Why are we lagging behind even our neighboring countries in this race? Let us delve into it. Through my professional experiences, I have witnessed that even successful entrepreneur sometimes do

not know how to pick the right person. Sometimes even headhunters are not well-knowledged about professional talents available in the market. It is the missing link we are discussing. I must say there are lots of talents in Bangladesh. But we have a mindset or mentality that expats are more professional and fit for the job. To some extent that is right because, regarding professionalism and technical know-hows, they are much better than us. But if our people can learn those things they can catch up very easily and quickly. With that point of view, I must say we have a noteworthy talent pool. Miserably, we are not nurturing and grooming them properly. That is happening due to our narrow mindset, lack of succession plan, and senior management role or leadership plan in companies. There are many large companies which do not have any particular job descriptions or role profile or even the need assessment of the skillsets requiring for specific job or function. They think they will hire someone and he/she can perform automatically. but thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not the case. Now in and around the organization, it requires multi-skilled people and some of them have to be

specialized. Some are thinkers and planners, while some are performers or doers, and some do routine jobs. Three categories of people are needed in a company. Somebody have to think and strategize the plan. Somebody has to play and score. To succeed, a company needs the right HR mix. We live in the age of digitization. We are living in

Tech Savvy

Keeping up

A growing nation a global village. We are far from the race, and we do not have much time to lag behind. The policy of wait and see will lead us backwards. Strangely enough, almost half of our population are youth; they will be our next leaders, policymakers, and entrepreneurs. So we need to

read their minds and prepare our roadmap taking them in the right direction. The youth force is posing an endless opportunity for us. We have to empower our next generation by honoring their unique skills. They are entirely different from the peoples of two decades back. They are not the babies of Stone Age, but of Digital Age. We have to understand what makes them successful or they will be derailed. The millennial generation is very tech savvy. They wanted to find everything at their fingertips. In reality, there is a need of touch and feel otherwise they will be techno based only, and human factor will be missing. Logic is that for leadership there has to be some human aspects or combination of both. We cannot avoid technology, modernization, urbanization, digitation as

Some companies have it only to write in their annual report. But it is not found in their practices. The companies have to live by the brand values. Why are the Multi-National companies ruling over the world? They follow their vision, mission and brand values. Corporate branding, like a human being, has its own DNA. Positive brand culture shapes the future of a corporation. If you go by the traditional culture, your company will not grow after ten years. The essential factor is to consider the empowerment of netizens. We have to have some time-bound commitment and sincere efforts to develop our skills, e.g., leadership skills, professional skills, managerial skills and thinking skills above all human ability. In most cases, our thinking and

We live in the age of digitization. We are living in a global village. We are far from the race, and we do not have much time to lag behind. The policy of wait and see will lead us more far back. well as globalization. I am talking about the Internet of Things (IoT). We have to accept these things and apply them strategically. A lot of companies are copying models instead of strategizing their vision, mission, the requirement as well as; they do not have any value proposition. www.ibtbd.net

leadership skills are missing. We only try to manage things. But the requirement is to improve through a holistic approach. In most of the cases our local companies do not have any Key Performance Index (KPI) and Policy & Processes (P&P) and quality human resources. Indeed, we have successful CEOs but future CEOs must attain trust and loyalty as a person and should have dynamic and strategic long-term vision. Excitement shall be there, but it should satisfy their work environment; they need to excite people by motivation. There should be performing work environment, respectful employee relation and coexist with diversified people. It is a globalized world, so we have to set up our mindset as a global manager. You have to share and transfer your thought to other persons and prepare people for implementing your dream. If you are not hiring right people, then they cannot match with your vision. You have to hire right human resources also otherwise will be negative. A company cannot grow with negative people; only passionate performers can shift a company from the conglomerate, which requires a platform to perform, and allows them to play a role rather than

We have to understand what makes them successful or they will be derailed. The millennial generation is very tech savvy. They wanted to find everything at their fingertips. In reality, there is a need of touch and feel otherwise they will be techno based only, and human factor will be missing.

giving task oriented unproductive job. Narrow mindset coupled with lack of knowledge, sycophancy, and nepotism form a vicious cycle. To break it individuals should come forward proactively. If we go through the case study of successful people, then we see that they are patient, timely, vision-oriented, committed, dynamic and modern in thinking level. They are trying to develop themselves every day. Nevertheless, the case is not the same for us.

After finishing academic courses, we think that we know everything. But the real learning starts after passing the academic course. We are not trying to

upgrade ourselves. The way forward is that everybody has to develop individually. They have to decide to have a vision, and go there; only then does it becomes a collective vision. The company should understand that besides hiring, it has a responsibility to provide training and development and give proper environment so that those resources can be used in the long run. Last but not least, we have to be futuristic and shall count what will happen in future. Now the service sector is emerging. In the physical sector, there is an option of copy the products but not the services. In character, services are unique. Any kind of services from tourism to banking everything is unique. It may be tangible or intangible. The road to success is to create a small difference through your service branding. Finally, it is time to recognize openly and build a relationship through collaborative efforts and inspire the future generation to grab future possibilities and minimize the missing link.

Event

Sparks of the Youth: Working Towards Harnessing Energy By Ishrat Jahan

The grand finale of the HULT Prize 2018 @ BRAC UNIVERSITY, took place on the 30 November 2017 in the universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Mohakhali campus. As the evening rolled, six finalist teams presented their visions at the event which was jointly hosted by BRAC Business School and co-hosted by IABC | BRAC University. The event started with Mirza Tanzim Sami, Advisor for the competition briefing about the star panel of judges. The group included noteworthy personalities like Mohammad Nazmul Karim, Senior Vice President & Head of

Brand, The City Bank Ltd; Md. Ahsan Habib, PEng, Former Superintending Engineer, Public Works Department (PWD), Ministry of Housing and Public Works. COO, Center for Engineers and Environment Ltd. (CEELtd.); Former entrepreneur, M. K. Aaref, Chief Executive Officer, American Center and Edward M Kennedy Center for Public Service and the Arts, Ejazur Rahman, Managing Director, Mind Mapper. CEO, ISCEA-Asia, and many more aspiring personalities. An introductory speech was delivered by the esteemed Dean of BRAC

Business School, Dr. Iftekhar Ghani Chowdhury. The Campus Director, Tasneem Omar Ava rendered a welcome address, after which Faculty Coordinator, Mahreen Mamoon invited the six teams for the final round of presentations. Amongst the first three presenters were Team Illumination, HULK, and Aspirant; who were later followed by Stalwart. Elevate and lastly, Tesseract. As the teams were done presenting their months of hard work for one last time, the Vice Chancellor of BRAC University, Professor Syed Saad Andaleeb along with others in the judging panel analyzed the solutions presented by each of the teams for a while. The excitement and eagerness of the participants ended at the declaration of the winners by the Vice-Chancellor later that day. The respected personality distributed the trophies amongst the champion and runners-up teams, and winners received the prize money from Nazmul Karim. Amidst the plethora of teams who participated, Team Elevate emerged as the champion. Their two months of relentless hard work paid off as the secured a seed fund of Tk 50,000 sponsored by the City Bank and a fully funded trip to Shanghai by BRAC Business School, where they will be competing in the Regional Finale of HULT Prize 2018. Team HULK and Team Aspirant were the first and second runners-up and received Tk 30,000 and Tk 20,000 respectively as a token of appreciation. The runners-up teams also will also be representing the country in Singapore and Malaysia. ICE Business Times was the Digital Content Partner of this event.

Rohingya Crisis

Ensuring Well-Being:

Health Interventions During a Humanitarian Crisis By Ashfaque Zaman

In conversation with FARIA SELIM Spokesperson, Unicef

The humanitarian situation of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh remains dire, with some 647,000 newly arrived refugees since 25 August 2017, totalling up to 2,000 persons arriving each day at various entry points along the border. Upon arriving at the site, Faria Selim witnessed a sea of tents, “I knew that these plastic structures were homes, hospitals, and shelters for the people. However, I was greeted by the grim reality of the situation.” She met a shivering woman upon entering the tent; not understanding her words, Faria asked her driver to translate for her, and he explained that she was in labor. “I wanted to take her to the hospital. As my colleague and I were trying to stop a car and as we were working out the means of action with him, she went into labor,” details Faria. Unfortunately, the woman had delivered a still born baby. “The baby’s white complexion and lack of movement indicated that the child was stillborn. She went on to tell me that she had lost her husband after trekking across unknown lands for 8 to 10 days. She did not know if he was alive.” Stories such as these were all too common in the camp. There were women perched on roadsides not knowing where to go amongst this massive influx. “I spoke to a woman who had given birth during her journey here. She had her mother-in-law to assist her and no one else. Fortunately, her child had survived, but these new mothers and pregnant women were giving birth without any security of their own life.” Courtesy of UNICEF www.ibtbd.net

MOTHERS AND CHILDREN IN NEED

We found an estimated 564,000 people are in urgent need of nutrition services. Among them, 16,695 children under 59 months need treatment for Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM); 198,868 children aged 6-59 months need Vitamin A supplementation; 50,780 pregnant and lactating women (PLW) need counselling on infant and young child feeding practices in emergencies. Since 25 August, a total of 168,480 children under the age of five have been screened for malnutrition and, out of them, 9,026 children were identified with SAM. Among them, 8,720 children are receiving treatment. We also found that many expecting mothers or breastfeeding women were not even equipped with the information to handle their children. 19 of our nutrition centers opened a separate wing that focuses on aiding pregnant women and lactating mother. We counsel them on infant child feeding. Furthermore, there is a breastfeeding corner that is teaching a lactating mother how to feed their babies. It also provides a safe place for them to feed their children. Among the pregnant and lactating women, 30,847 received infant and young child feeding (IYCF) counselling, along with critical information to reducing undernutrition among infants and young children. In addition, 228,269 children between 6-59 months have received vitamin A supplementation and 5,606 children between 6-23 months of age received micronutrient powder (MNP) supplementation. In this case, we want the women of the community to have the necessary knowledge to support one another.

A COOPERATIVE COMMUNITY

Our centers are creating behavior changes because good hygiene practices reduce the disease state. The centers teach them simple hygiene matters such as washing their hands before eating and after using the bathroom. They also offered information as to where they can avail medication and medical services through other institutes. Upon entering the site, we realized that the community leader (majhi) had a tremendous influence on the people. We prioritized training them to disseminate information. These leaders supported our vaccination initiative. After we witnessed the effectiveness of that campaign, we worked with majhis on vaccination campaigns, health services, and child protection issues including creating awareness for child trafficking. These individuals are a source of empowerment for a community. Diphtheria cases have been increasing rapidly in camps. There is an urgent need for dissemination of relevant information regarding prevention, treatment and management of diphtheria. During the past week, UNICEF facilitated reaching out to about 217,488 people with critical and life-saving messages through various channels. A total of 200,000 listeners were also reached through key messages on psychosocial support, Child Protection, gender-based violence (GBV) and human trafficking issues through Bangladesh

Courtesy of UNICEF

Betar, Coxâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Bazar and Radio NAF, with technical support from BBC Media Action. A total of 442 wind up radios were distributed to local partners for use in Child Friendly Spaces, learning centres and adolescent groups. In 8 information centres, a total 767 feedbacks, queries and complaints were recorded this week. Moreover, through Model Mothers, about 16,000 people were reached in a week with life-saving messages on various issues including hygiene promotion, health and nutrition, safe water and sanitation. Around 108 teachers and partner staff were provided with training on interpersonal communication and key messages. Out of this, nine IFC staffs were given hands on training on the database system related to record keeping and reporting on IFC activities. Over the past week, a total 67 majhis and imams participated in advocacy meetings from different camps where discussion on hygiene promotion, prevention of

diarrhoea, cholera and pneumonia, basic nutrition, child protection and menstrual hygiene management (MSM) issues were discussed. The majhis and imams will disseminate the key messages to communities in respective blocks and Friday prayers at mosque. Involvement of Imams in disseminating messages on menstrual hygiene in mosque and communities is really a challenge that PULSE has initiated first time in the camps with technical support from UNICEF. Through community dialogues, around 654 people were reached and the topics covered were personal hygiene, child protection and nutrition. An 800-CMV Network is being set up to contact families and discuss cross-cutting life-saving messages with them. This network is being operationalized in partnership with national NGO BRAC. This network is an addition to the already existing 80 Model Mothers and youth volunteers that were attached with the Information and

Feedback Centres (IFCs). So far, the recruitment of 22 POs and 80 CMMs are in process. Starting on 10 December 2017, briefing session on Diphtheria and Measles Prevention will be conducted for CMMs, subsequently followed by formal induction training later during the month.

SAFE WATER AND HYGIENE PRACTICES: STOPPING THE SOURCE OF CONTAMINATION

The WASH (Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene) system is the major concern in the area because of the alarming rate of acute watery diarrhea. According to the Mortality and Morbidity Rate, the percent of E. coli in the region is an alarming 82%. We have provided safe drinking water for 212,800 since the start of the influx. We have recently signed an MOU with the government and army to build

10,000 latrines. Our latrines adhere to international standards because we understand that lack of these provisions allows for the circulating water-borne diseases. 300,000 people have been provided with necessary sanitation so far. We have also enabled health practices by holding orientations on hygienic practices in our information and feedback centers, learning centers, and child-friendly spaces. Additionally, we have distributed around 137,000 hygiene kits. These kits contains detergent powder, soap, and pitchers and jugs for containing water, along with nappies, sanitary napkins, towels and sandals. Our understanding is that teaching these people employ these matters in their practices will create hygienic practices that last. UNICEF and its partners are working to reach 450,000 people with provision of safe drinking water, emergency sanitation facilities (latrines), and hygiene kits along with culturally appropriate hygiene messages that include personal, food and menstrual hygiene. The number of people gaining access to improved water supply and sanitation continues to increase through UNICEF’s direct support. So far, 212,800 people (47% of the target), have been reached with water supply through construction of 502 tube-wells, water treatment plants and water trucking. The construction of the 10,000 latrines by the Bangladesh Army is in progress with 3,015 latrines already completed, which brings the number of people reached with sanitation services to 313,900, representing 70% of the target population. Through UNICEF support, 7 fecal sludge management systems have been constructed in Kutupalong Mega Camp and 165 latrines were de-sludged. This is the beginning of the sludge management programme which needs to be scaled up to keep

pace with demand and maintain a safe and healthy environment within the camps. The construction of 13 additional sludge plants is in progress and will be completed this month. UNICEF has supported the construction of 700 bathing cubicles specifically for women – providing a safe and dignified bathing area for an estimated 35,000 women. The WASH sector (sector includes all the agencies working in the WASH) has agreed to focus on the installation of deep tube-wells (more than 150 meters). There will be no more drilling of shallow wells after 31 December to avoid the risk of contamination from latrines and surface water.

PREVENTATIVE MEASURE: HEALTH INTERVENTION FOR A MORE RESILIENT FUTURE

The health needs of the refugee population are overwhelming with up to an estimated 348,000 children under age 15. These children are in need of life-saving interventions through community-based activities such as vaccination campaigns. The risk of communicable disease outbreaks remains very high given population densities inside the camps and the severe lack of adequate safe water and sanitation. During a time where vaccinations are a very natural part of an infant’s life, the fact that such a vast population is unaware of the necessity of vaccination to prevent these diseases before they even occurring is mandatory. With the high risk of measles during such emergencies, UNICEF, WHO and the Government of Bangladesh rolled out two rounds of measles and rubella (MR) vaccination campaign, between September and November. The number of new arrivals has increased since the first MR campaign, which also had challenges reaching out to all children in view of movement of people within the camps and settlements. The increase in measles cases has prompted the Government and UN partners to step up immunization efforts in overcrowded camps and makeshift shelters close to the border with Myanmar. Wide scale vaccination campaigns are urgently required. In total in two rounds, 475,299 children between six months and 15 years were vaccinated against MR. Additionally, children received bivalent oral polio vaccine (bOPV) and a dose of Vitamin A to help prevent measles related complication. Additionally, Government is introducing accelerated routine immunization for children providing bOPV, measles-rubella vaccination and tetanus toxoid (TT) to pregnant women through 32 medical camps and 70 outreach vaccination teams going from house-to-house. Also, vaccination posts at main entry points at Subrang, Shahporir Dip, and Teknaf are being established. UNICEF worked with partners to vaccinate nearly 900,000 thousand people against cholera –the second largest oral cholera vaccination campaign after Haiti. On 12 December the Government of Bangladesh, with the support of UNICEF, the World Health Organization www.ibtbd.net

SUPPORTING THE YOUNGEST MEMBERS

One realizes that this a children’s emergency when you witness that a majority of the arrival are children. We need to protect their futures. We must make sure that this crisis that is stealing their childhoods does not also ruin their futures. We need to reach as many children as possible with life-saving support – and to make sure that they can keep learning, playing — having as normal a childhood as possible. More than 373,800 children, 60% of the total influx since August 25, are exceptionally vulnerable. 9% are infants under one year old; nearly 5% of the newly arrived refugees are pregnant, and more than 9% are breastfeeding women. The most alarming scenario is that 3.6% of the newly arrived refugees are women headed households and 1.4% are headed by children. Malnutrition rates among children in northern Rakhine were already above emergency thresholds. The condition of these children has further deteriorated due to the long journey across the border and the conditions in the camps. People now living in the camps are faced with an acute shortage of food and water, unsanitary conditions and high rates of diarrhoea and respiratory infections. Cases of measles have been reported. We have 19 nutrition camps that

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measure and analyze the weight of incoming children so we can immediately assess nutrition and health interventions for each of them. Preliminary data suggest that the occurrence of severe acute malnutrition has doubled to 7.5% since May 2017. There are 16,981 children afflicted with it and the organizations there have divided this enormous task; UNICEF has targeted 7,500 kids alone. We determine which children are malnourished through SAM screening where if a child hand measurement is less than 11 cm they are considered to be severely malnourished. These children require therapeutic foods and further medications. They are more prone to chest congestion and acute respiratory infection; in such cases, we refer them to hospitals and provide the financial support for the necessary health interventions. Up to 90% of new arrivals have reported eating just one meal a day. Food security and malnutrition rates were alarmingly high even before the influx of new arrivals. Cases of Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) can increase dramatically during emergencies, unless adequate responses are in place. Recent field visits, observations and nutrition assessments in the registered Rohingya refugee camps show a higher caseload of children with acute malnourishment. Despite the humanitarian aid that is being provided, the global acute malnutrition prevalence among children under 5 has increased in the recent months in the registered refugee camps. Preliminary data from a nutrition assessment conducted between October 22 and 28 at Kutupalong refugee camp shows a 7.5% prevalence of life-threatening severe acute malnutrition – a rate double to what was observed among Rohingya refugee children in May 2017. Prevalence of acute malnutrition among children 6-59 months exceeds the WHO Emergency Threshold (15%) in

Courtesy of UNICEF

and GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, launched a vaccination campaign against diphtheria and other preventable diseases for all Rohingya children aged 6 weeks to 6 years living in 12 camps and temporary settlements near the Myanmar border. Accelerated immunization will cover nearly 255,000 children in Ukhiya and Teknaf sub-districts in Cox’s Bazar, while the Government and health partners continue to increase support for diphtheria treatment and prevention.

both registered refugees and new arrivals. Malnutrition rates among children in northern Rakhine state were already above emergency thresholds. The condition of these children further deteriorated due to the long journey across the border, and the conditions in the camps. Since 25 August, UNICEF and partners have screened nearly 168,400 children under-five for malnutrition. Among them, 9,026 children were found with Severe Acute Malnutrition, and UNICEF provided 8,720 children are receiving treatment. As a response to the current nutrition survey that showed increased SAM rates, a scale up strategy for nutrition is currently under development. This includes opening of four more stabilization centres, 19 new OTPs, ten blanket supplementary feeding (BSFP) programmes, ten targeted supplementary feeding programmes (TSFP) and the extension of outreach activities between November and December. As of November, UNICEF and the Government have conducted the Nutrition Action week to increase treatment of malnutrition as well as preventive nutrition coverage. The campaign targeted all children under the age of 5 years were screened and referred, and received of Vitamin A capsules and de-worming according to their needs. At least 228,269 children aged between 6-59 months received Vitamin A capsules and more than 104,048 children aged between 24-59 months received de-worming tablets. 335,000 children and pregnant and lactating women (PLW) received micronutrient powder (MNP) supplementation. 30,847 PLW have received infant and young child feeding (IYCF) counselling, information critical to reducing undernutrition in infants and young children.

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In conversation with KAOSAR AFSANA

Director, Health, Nutrition and Population, BRAC Upon the decision that they would need to intervene in an enormous humanitarian crisis of the recent time, Kaosar Afsana and fellow Director Md Akramul Islam were the first to go to the site. She details that even after many years in the medical school and fieldwork she had been ready for such emotional shock and psychological trauma, ‘We went to Kutupalong camp. Rohingya refugee women and men are waiting along the roadside sitting on the mud, many are moving carrying bags on the top of their head, and some are inside the makeshift shelter – 15 to 16 in one temporary plastic shelter camp. Faces and eyes are without emotion and expression, completely lost and helpless.“ She continued, “I witnessed a man lying outside one hospital with most of the skin burned off. I could not look at him a second time because I was not prepared for this magnitude of pain and sufferings.” The patient was left untreated as there was no option for treating him. She knew that they would have to expand their services beyond the child-friendly spaces and water hygiene and sanitation (WASH) service; they would need to health interventions and psychosocial trauma counseling immediately. ”It dawned on me that he was one of the countless and helpless that had been denied basic treatment and humane treatment in his own country. The normalization of their tone as they spoke of their helplessness, displacement, and torture was what struck me most.”

HEALTH WORKERS: A FORCE IN NUMBERS

Our community health workers have always been one of our greatest strengths, and this crisis was no exception. We trained 120 community health workers following the crisis, to work with our medical doctors and paramedics in the camp. They are spread across 50 of our satellite clinics and 10 of our fixed primary health care centers (PHC); we have treated 490,033 patients through our satellite clinics and 147,985 patients through our PHC. They are our primary health focal points, and they work to provide essential health services. We have treated more than 590,000 patients. Our community mobilization volunteers have made 61,711 household visits.

MATERNAL CARE AT EVERY STRETCH

With 10 fixed centers, we have established 10 maternity centers where trained midwives offer services to pregnant women. The midwives attend childbirth in the maternity centers and also at home. They check pregnant women providing antenatal care and postnatal care after delivery. Photo credit: BRAC www.ibtbd.net

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The most considerable limitation of any intervention is the fact that you can only work from 9 A.M. to 5 P.M. Packing up means that the services provided in our centers are not available. Beyond that time, you are not permitted in the camp for security purpose. This time limitation poses the most significant challenge for women with labor pain. Although our maternity centers have allocated space for them to give birth, many of them are not comfortable going out of their shelter home. We have trained Rohingya traditional birth attendant to help them during these hours or refer them to hospitals if the women need urgent attention. We have developed a referral system so that emergency cases can be taken to hospitals by calling our ambulance. Our ambulance will take them to hospitals right away. Our centers have delivered 398 babies. We also focus on mothers delivering antenatal care to 20,341 women and post-natal care to 2,061.

INTERVENTION WITH SENSITIVITY

These people come from a very conservative background with traditional beliefs and practices, and for years, they did not access to healthcare in their own country â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Myanmar. Health interventions, therefore, must be planned and designed in the context of their reality and understanding. The average family size in the camp is not less than 6 to 7; Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve seen families of 19 and 21. These large families create a dangerous cycle of malnutrition and eventually untimely death. They need proper family planning program to save lives of mothers and children and save the future generation. One cannot implement an aggressive family planning program for these communities. If we reflect on our own country, family planning was not primarily accepted until the benefits were explained. We have trained some of the women in the camps because they have the most open access to the families and can communicate most effectively. These women along with our community health workers go door-to-door to assess the size of families and group the female members according to age. They are grouped into members under 5, adolescents and females of birthing age (15-49). These girls teach the community about family planning and health care and practices that are accessible. The primary challenge in this concern is providing these women with contraceptives. We have provided family planning services to 12,536. They are not accustomed to oral contraceptives and prefer injections. The severity of the situation is one that demands for them to have this form of contraception. However, we need the major stakeholders in the refugee camps to make these injections available. Unfortunately, they also have limitations, and this mainly entails their procurement process. They must now allocate money for these provisions.

COORDINATING HYGIENE AND SANITATION

With such a vast influx settling in the region with no water and sanitation provisions, diarrhea and water-borne diseases become a primary concern. We have treated nearly 81,051 cases of diarrhea and 78,456 cases of pneumonia alone. At first, there was a lack of coordination because many

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organizations and NGO were building latrines too close to one another. We are more coordinated in this matter now. Our 13,120 latrines provide sanitation services to approximately 563,400 people. These people also have no access to safe drinking water. 1,265 shallow tubes wells were set up so that people have access to safe drinking water. However, to improve water quality, we educated the community and distributed halogen tablets, and at the same time, we installed 83 deep tube well. Our safe water interventions have reached 366,840 people. We understand that hygienic practices need to be implemented and this has led us to construct hand

washing stations and continuous education on hygiene promotion. We have conducted 37,116 hygiene session to educate the population about healthy practices. We also want to ensure that women and children can bath safely in one of our 3,735 bathing cubicles.

SUSTENANCE AMONGST A CRISIS

When you have such a crisis, the priority becomes feeding these people. The World Food Project (WFP) provides rice and lentil, but this is not enough. Moreover, these people do not eat lentil so you often find them trading it in for vegetables and whatever

Photo Credit: BRAC

else they can find. Malnutrition is increasing at such a high rate because they have no access to a diversified diet. For now, organizations are focusing on keeping them fed. The cases of malnutrition amongst children will continue to increase if not doubled if a more diverse diet is not provided. We focus on complementary feeding which includes children over six months to have quality food beyond breast milk for nutrition. I witnessed their resilience as a population; they have started to set up shops for vegetables and rice, which they trade or buy through the money they have earned. They are already building a community within the community.

TAKING PREVENTATIVE MEASURE: INTEGRATING IMMUNIZATION In today’s day and age, vaccinations are a norm when any child is born. I was awestruck to see the degradation of health for the children because they have not been vaccinated in their own country Myanmar. This lack is a testament to the conditions of the region. To control the cholera outbreak, we instantly started the cholera vaccinations. The Global Vaccine Initiative has supplied the first round of vaccines to prevent cholera outbreaks, and they are

working to provide the second series within six months’ time. We are concerned with measles and diphtheria outbreaks. Suddenly, diphtheria outbreak started, again with the proactive government, NGOs and WHO and UNs’ support, the country has managed to control diphtheria. We actively participated in cholera and diphtheria control program. Now routine immunization has started where we are also actively participating. There are 279 health workers and 1,129 program staff who have trained to handle diptheria cases. 14,393 children have been vaccinated against diphtheria under our campaign. Our volunteers

are a tremendous support and they have brought 82,096 children to the government vaccination centers. The strength of BRAC is that we work at scale maintaining quality with relevance and context. We believe in partnership. Along with strong partnership with the government of Bangladesh, UNs, NGOs, and community, we enhance and accelerate access of services to the disadvantaged and displaced populations who fled to Bangladesh physically and mentally devastated and traumatized. We continue to work with no one leaving behind.

www.ibtbd.net

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P H O T O G R A P H B Y D I N M S H I B LY

Industry Insight

HOME

GROWN SOLUTIONS: HOW TRADITIONAL INDUSTRIES CAN ADAPT BEST PRACTICES TO STAY RELEVANT An insight into the $919 million ‘golden fabric’ industry employing 4 million.

By Proma Huq www.ibtbd.net

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P H O T O G R A P H B Y D I N M S H I B LY

Industry Insight

Diversity

DON’T PUT ALL YOUR EGGS IN ONE BASKET With a constant presence from the nascence of the trade till today, Bangladesh has always enjoyed a substantial advantage when it comes to jute. Continually moving forward with innovative developments on a global scale – be it traditional agricultural and industrial markets, or even seemingly unrelated areas like fashion and automobile trends – will ensure success for both individual businesses as well as the nation’s economic prospects. At present, jute is used in a wide range of diversified products, such as shopping bags, floorboards, decorative fabrics, footwear, paper products and even automobile interiors, in new ecologically friendlier cars, like the new BMW i3. Jute is growing in tandem with technological developments; it is also being used to replace more expensive or scarce materials by companies that are diversifying and exploring other options. One such company is Janata Jute Mills Limited, an institution that is currently manufacturing a variety of jute products for the global export market. Together with their counterpart, Sadat Jute Industries, they are one of the largest producers of jute goods in Bangladesh. Currently, the company exports diversified jute products to more than 120 countries around the world, with items ranging from Hessian bags and sacks to agricultural and automotive products. Mahmudul Huq, Dy. Managing Director of Janata Jute Mills and Sadat Jute Industries, believes that while Bangladesh has a vast amount of potential, paradoxically, many jute mills are struggling to remain afloat as their primary focus may be on one single product. Huq details an industry that holds a rich history, “In 1947, 100% of the jute exports were raw jute, whether to India or the rest of the world, but there was simply no industry at that time. Today, only around 15% is exported as raw jute – the rest is all value-added products. The remaining 15% gives us the opportunity to add further value, whatever the diversified product may be.”

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Silver lining Despite being commonly perceived as an archaic industry, perhaps even one that is past its prime, jute is still a major contender for its role in the economic development of Bangladesh. Jute, also known as the golden fiber, is one of the most durable and most affordable natural fibers in the world and one of the country’s prime national resources. Bangladesh remains the biggest both producer and exporter of jute, with Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) data declaring export values for the fiscal year 2015-2016 to be around $920 million for raw jute and jute goods. However, traditional practices are no longer enough to sustain growth and improve commercial viability for the future. This feature sheds lights on the future prospects of jute industry.

Compliance

A HAPPY WORKER MAKES A ‘HAPPY PRODUCT’ Being one of the most densely populated countries in the world, Bangladesh has an abundance of labor available; however, most urban informal and rural part-time workers live in constant flux, just above the national poverty line. Paying a fair wage with full-time employment (versus on a “by need basis,” which is only beneficial to the employer), addressing the needs of all employees and incentivizing workers all lead to less stoppage in production due to strikes, absenteeism and other labor-related issues. Huq prioritizes worker safety and satisfaction, “We are a family business, and our workers are an integral part of our family. For any sector, be it RMG, Jute, Agro, etc., business owners must ensure the well-being of their employees first and foremost. A happy worker will make a quality product, which in turn will satisfy buyers.” In essence, performance and productivity are driven not only by the ability of the employee, but also the motivation provided by the employer. Instilling pride in one’s work also increases national pride, especially when the product is a well-known resource of the nation. Well-motivated employees are more productive, which in turn maximizes output - consequently, investing in employees is an essential component of running a successful business.

Industry Insight

Sustainability

ACCOUNTING FOR YOUR ACTIONS This year, at the prestigious Bangladesh Business Awards, in his opening remarks, Daily Star Editor & Publisher Mahfuz Anam said, “Bangladesh is a gift of our rivers, and we are working overtime to pollute and destroy them.” Traditional industries should take steps to ensure minimal waste and environmental impacts, such as installing ETP’s (Effluent Treatment Plants) to combat the pollutants released in rivers and our ecosystems. Having a vision of sustainability for the future is a vital component of any ethically responsible business. Bangladesh recently endured somewhat of an image crisis with anything “Made in Bangladesh.” The jute sector is not immune to this – the traditional industry must transcend prior notions and improve health and safety standards, not just within the company, but for extended communities as well. Other factors include maintaining compliance according to international standards, for building codes and code of conduct.

Strategize

Trendwatch

KEEP UP OR GET LOST In a world where both smart and sustainable fabrics are seeing a rise in demand, many fast fashion companies are receiving flack for close to 11 million tons of textiles that ended up in landfills last year. Jute is now being processed for use in wearable textiles, such as woven in saris, or jeans made out of cotton and jute blended denim, appealing to a new wave of eco-conscious consumers. “This is the way the market is heading; away from the traditional fields – the bags and the sacks and the industrial packaging – and towards a sustainable future. These orders may not be of the same volume as before, but will be of value,” explains Huq. Keeping a finger on the pulse of what is trending and where the global market is heading allows businesses the scope to expand according to current trends. Jute has numerous advantages over the synthetic material, which can be maximized for products that are both nontraditional and value added.

P H O T O G R A P H B Y D I N M S H I B LY

The jute industry has a bad reputation for delayed shipments and taking orders despite being over capacity – a pitfall that may potentially hinder future orders. Huq believes that a customer’s trust is the key to a flourishing company, “One of our mottos at work with our buyers is ‘when you sign the contract, you can rest - we will handle everything else.” While the government is attempting to eliminate bottlenecks in land, gas, electricity, and infrastructure, in the meantime planning production and anticipating any potential roadblocks are the key to success. Ultimately, confidence in yourself, your product and the quality of it will pave the way for further utilizing our nation’s resources, to create growth. Huq believes that the country can foster industries with immense success, “Bangladesh is virtually the only jute exporter in the world – I do not know of any other country that exports raw jute, so our scope for further industrialization is still very much present.” www.ibtbd.net

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Women’s Empowerment

THE

Driving

What was your motivation for choosing this profession?

This was not just a reason to work; as women of different backgrounds we want to stand out in the crowd. Once inspired by relatives and challenged by financial situations many of us took driving lessons at CARE Bangladesh where we were taught to feel more comfortable about this new profession. Our mindsight was geared towards setting examples for the ones who spend their lives succumbed to orthodox beliefs. Driving made us feel independent and helped fight our inner fears to a great extent. So, the profession was appealing for a number of reasons.

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EDGE

By Ishrat Jahan From the early days of its inception, Bangladesh has dramatically evolved out of the shell of societal barriers. The once conservative nation has now opened wings towards becoming a more progressive one. And the women of BRAC’s driving school are taking the wheel and redefining the traditional role of women. Women have now started to shatter the social stigma and found their place elsewhere alongside being a homemaker. With the help of organizations like BRAC, they are not only performing diligently as corporates but also taking up tasks like driving with dignity. ICE Business Times opens a dialogue with the women that are steering the change.

(The names of the interviewees have not been included to protect their privacy.)

What Sort of Health Hazards do you often Face at Work? There isn’t much of a health hazard at work here, apart from the usual risks associated with driving and road conditions. However, once there was an accident, and people mistook my car to be the victim, and a lot of people came out to help and said upon the discovery that it isn’t always that people witness a woman driving office cars in our country.

Photos from BRAC

Are the earnings from this job sufficient enough to manage your household?

Our earnings here is moderate and is sufficient enough to cover an individualâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s needs. However, the same cannot be true when it comes to meeting their family needs.

What impact does this have on your family life? What improvements can be made to solve any such problems? Sometimes it happens as such that due to unavoidable circumstances at work, we head towards home quite late. For many of us who just got married or have taken children this is a troublesome situation. It often gets difficult for us to balance both sides due the time constraint.

Our working hours would be favorable if we were allowed to work at reasonable hours. This condition will motivate the existing drivers to work more efficiently and also encourage more women to join this line of work

Female drivers discussing their experiences.

What is your work duration?

Many of us who have staff duties are obliged to come work in the early morning hours. Apart from that our regular shifts are generally of around 10 hours every day for five days a week. However, depending on circumstances we sometimes work on the weekends as well.

Do you work elsewhere besides this job? Why?

We work here full time, and that leaves us with no time to work elsewhere. Besides this, we also have to give time back home, and our pay here is sufficient enough for us not to look for other jobs.

SOCIETY HAS STARTED ACCEPTING GIRLS PERFORMING SUCH ROLES WAY MORE THAN THE WAY IT DID TWENTY TO THIRTY YEARS BACK, AND WE ARE GLAD TO BE A PART OF THIS CHANGE.

Have you faced any cultural stigmas from the society or your family when you chose this profession? For some of us coming from different conservative backgrounds. Initially, it was difficult to break the idea back home that girls are only born to manage the household and that such a profession is just restricted to men. Whereas, many of us started off with this profession with the personal consent of our family members. The rebelliousness in our thoughts and success in this field is what helped us break all stereotypes. Society has started accepting girls performing such roles way more than the way it did twenty to thirty years back, and we are glad to be a part of this change. www.ibtbd.net

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TALENT REQUISITION

Ask and Ye Shall Find:

The Right Questions to Find the Best Candidates By Yousha Mohan

Dynamic people build thriving businesses. While excellent business ideas are the center of the success of business, it is the people in the organization who nurture that idea, implement it, and take it one step further and keep on improving it. A successful business will always need people with the right skills, and experience. Along with all that, people with the potential to do wonders can take the company to great heights. Screening for people with potential becomes a crucial factor while recruiting them. It is not a very easy task either. In most scenarios, an interview lasts for about 20-30 minutes, which quite honestly is not long to determine if the candidate can be efficient. However, this does not mean one cannot fully assess the potential of a candidate during an interview. The behavioral interview question is an efficient way of determining a personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s potential. These questions look into the candidateâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ability to grow, collaborate, adapt, prioritize, strengthen, and lead a company. Each of those qualities has certain individual questions that can give the authorities an idea of the type of person they are recruiting.

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THE BEHAVIORAL INTERVIEW QUESTION IS AN EFFICIENT WAY OF DETERMINING A PERSON’S POTENTIAL. THESE QUESTIONS LOOK INTO THE CANDIDATE’S ABILITY TO GROW, COLLABORATE, ADAPT, PRIORITIZE, STRENGTHEN, AND LEAD A COMPANY.

ADAPTABILITY

One of the most important soft skills that managers look for when hiring recruits is the ability to adapt. In fact, around 69% of managers from all around the world have said that adaptability is key to surviving in this ever-changing world for both businesses as well as for employees. Having the skill to adapt means that employees can adjust to themselves no matter how fluctuating the economy becomes or volatile the business needs to be. Few adaptability questions that one can ask during the interview are · Talk about an incident where you had to do something you had never done before? How did you react and what did you learn from it? · Describe a situation where you had to go through a major change of procedure at work. How did you cope with the changes and how difficult was it to depart from your old ways of work? · Talk about an instance where you were assigned tasks which were out of your job description. How did you handle it? What were the results? · What is the biggest change that you had to deal with in your life? How well did you adapt to that change? · Mention one situation where you had to adjust yourself to your colleague’s working style to finish a project. Were your objectives achieved due to that?

CULTURE ADD

When companies talk about the culture they don’t necessarily mean that everyone should be of the same culture. Yes, it is important to follow the company culture, but if everyone were the same, then the company would be limited to only a handful of ideas and innovations. Culture add is the idea where the employees agree and believe in the company’s culture, but at the same time, they have their own set of culture that they bring to the company which thereby enhances the overall culture of the company. Some of the most famous cultures add related interview questions are the following; · What are three most important things in a job? · Describe the last time you were energized, satisfied and productive at work. What were you doing? · What is one of the most interesting things about you that you have not put on your resume? · What made you pick our company instead of others? · Name one of the biggest misconceptions your co-workers have regarding you. Why do you think they think like that? www.ibtbd.net

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Employee Pool

COLLABORATIONS

Business needs to operate smoothly to succeed, to become efficient and be the top name in their respective industry. A key part of attaining this smoothness is to ensure there are collaborations among the people working in the company. When employees can depend on each other to get things done, their productivity and efficiency increase significantly. In other words, when recruiting new employees, hiring managers look for team players who will work as a unit and not hamper the harmony of the working environment. Some good collaboration related questions to ask in the interview are · Describe an incident where you had to work with somebody difficult. How well did you handle all your interactions with that person? · Mention one time when you were communicating with somebody, but they did not quite understand you. What did you do eventually? · What is your best experience of working as a team? What were your contributions to that team? · Describe the best supervisor you have worked with. Describe your best team experiences. What is it about them that stood out in your mind? · Talk about a time when your project took a dramatic shift in directions at the last minute. What did you do?

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Culture add is the idea where the employees agree and believe in the company’s culture, but at the same time, they have their own set of culture that they bring to the company which thereby enhances the overall culture of the company.

LEADERSHIP

It is no secret that any company that contains high-quality leadership is likely to outperform their competitors. In fact, companies with great leadership are 13 times more likely to dominate their competitions. So it becomes vital to seek leadership in the recruits. Assessing if candidates can inspire their peers, motivate others and take control of situations is something that should be done during interviews. Some of the most common leadership-related questions during interview are; · Tell me about a time when something important did not go according to the plan at work. What role did you play in it? What was the eventual outcome? · Talk about a situation where you had to convince somebody to see things from your perspective. What were the steps that you had to take? What were the results? · Has there ever been an incident where you felt like you led by example? What did you exactly do? How did others respond to you? · What is the toughest decision you had to make in the last six months at work? · When was the last time you had to “sell” an idea to your co-workers or group? What was it? How did you do it? What were the results?

GROWTH POTENTIAL

There is a saying in the business workplace that “it costs less to retain an employee than to hire a new one.” The reason behind this saying is that a company will want to develop their own employees. They want to see that growth in their employees so that eventually they can take over a higher role in the company or a role of a leader in the future. Growth potential is one important aspect of an employee that hiring managers look for during interviews. For such, these following questions are asked. · Talk about a time when your manager was not available and you had to handle the situation. What did you do? Whom did you consult with? · When was the last time you volunteered to expand your work knowledge instead of doing it as a result of a direct order? · What motivates you to make a move from your current role? · How often to do you ask for direct feedback from your superiors? · In your mind, what is the biggest career goal you have achieved so far?

PRIORITIZATION In real world of business, there will be situations when one has to deal with multiple things at the same time. In such cases, prioritization will determine if that person is capable of leading the company in the future or not. Knowing which work needs to be done first and which ones can be delayed for a while requires significant knowledge and smartness too. Failure to get the right tasks done in the right time may hamper the business operations and the overall flow of the business. Seeing if the person has the prioritizing skills will allow the business to thrive. Hence, these are the prioritization questions that need to be asked at the interview. · Tell me about a time when you were tasked with juggling multiple projects at the same time. How did you manage your time? What was the outcome? · Talk about a project that you planned. How did you schedule the individual tasks? What were the organization obstacles? · Did you ever feel stressed out or overwhelmed with your workload? How did you cope with it? · Cite an example of when you successfully delegated an important work.

Data Driven

THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION AND THE DIGITAL DIVIDE Impacts on Human Lives By Selim Jahan

Director and Lead Author Human Development Report UNDP

ver centuries, the world has experienced a few industrial revolutions amongst which the recent one witnessed can be termed as a digital revolution â&#x20AC;&#x201C; computers, cell phones, internet, various forms of electronic social media and so on. In fact, Figure 1 also shows that compared to the other technological advances, the speed at which the digital revolution has entered our life is just mind-boggling. For example, in the United States, it took cars more than 80 years to reach half of the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s households, but for cell phone, it took less than ten years. Just two years after Apple shipped the first iPad, it sold 67 million units. It took 24 years to sell that many Macs, 5 years to sell that many iPods and more than three years to sell that many iPhones. www.ibtbd.net

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FIGURE 1

In recent years, the digital revolution has accelerated the global production of goods and services, particularly digital trade (Figure 3). In 2014, global trade in goods reached $18.9 trillion and trade in services $4.9 trillion.

The digital revolution, the global production of goods and services, and digital trade

The pace of digital revolution is illustrated in Figure 2 for Internet use and mobile phones. Not only is the change substantial and adoption is widespread. In 2015, there were more than 7 billion mobile subscriptions, 2.3 billion people on smartphones and about 3.2 billion people connected to the Internet. Of the mobile phone users, 49% were using smartphones in 2015.

719

700 600 500

240% average annual growth

400 300 200 100 0

2005

2014

Global trade ($ trillions)

Goods

FIGURE 2

Digital technology penetration around the world between 1995 and 2015 World Population

100 90

7.7 billion people 7.1 billion subscriptions

Mobile Phone

70 60 50

3.2 billion users

40 30

Internet

20 10 0

1995

2015

2015 subscriptions by device (%)

Smartphone

Other mobile phones

2015 internet users by region (%) Africa The Americas

6 21

Europe

48 5

CIS

118

Arab States

Asia and Pacific

2013

2013 2005

Goods (China) E-commerce share of total trade in goods 2005 Telephone calls (global) Skype share of international calls

Global Internet traffic Gigabytes (billions) 0

FIGURE 4

The digital component of global flows has increased—selected examples

2005

FIGURE 3

Car Airplane Telephone Electricity Video recorder Radio Television Personal computer internet cell phone

TIME TO ADOPT TECHNOLOGY (YEARS)

Adoption of new technologies in the United States

10.5 2.6

18.9

4.9

Services 2005

2014

The knowledge-intensive portion of global flows increasingly dominates—and is growing faster than—capital- and labor-intensive flows. Today knowledge-intensive flows account for half of the global flows and are gaining share: Knowledge-intensive goods flows are growing at 1.3 times the rate of labor-intensive goods flows. As a result, the digital components of goods and services flows have also increased (Figure 4). Indeed, many products today, as demonstrated by the “app economy,” are entirely virtual. Much of the data pass through the Internet, often on smartphones.

Service (US) Digitally enabled share of total trade in services

The current digital revolution presents unique challenges and opportunities for human development. It has changed people’s lives in every aspect – e.g., work, innovation, interaction, knowledge, business, to name a few. The digital revolution deserves attention in its right, but also because of the way it is changing human life and living. The spread and penetration of digital technologies are changing the world of work everywhere, but the effects vary across countries according to their own social and development contexts. Some technological changes are cross-cutting, such as information and communication technologies and the spread of mobile phones and other handheld devices. Still, countries will continue to have different production and employment structures and different uses for digital technologies, mainly reflecting the relative economic weights of agriculture, industry, and services, as well as the resources invested in developing people’s capabilities. Labor markets, the ratio of paid to unpaid work and the predominant types of workplaces in each country differ—so the impacts of digital technologies on employment will vary accordingly. The digital revolution may be associated with high-tech industries, but it is also influencing a whole range of more informal activities from agriculture to street vending. Some may be directly related to mobile devices. In Ethiopia, farmers use mobile phones to check coffee prices. In Saudi Arabia, farmers use wireless

technologies to distribute scarce irrigated water for wheat cultivation carefully. In some villages in Bangladesh, female entrepreneurs use their phones to provide paid services for neighbors. Many people sell phone cards or sell and repair mobile phones across developing countries. Mobile phones now facilitate many aspects of work through a combination of voice calls, SMS, and mobile applications. Some uses of mobile phones in agriculture are shown in Figure 3. But there are also benefits for many other types of activity, formal and informal, paid and unpaid, from food vendors in Cairo to street cleaners in Senegal to care providers in London. Mobile phone-based economic activity is likely to keep expanding rapidly. In Sub-Saharan Africa, individual mobile subscriptions are predicted to rise from 311 million in 2013 to 504 million in 2020. The digital economy has enabled many women to access work that applies their creativity and potential. In 2013, about 1.3 billion women were using the Internet. Some have moved to e-trading as entrepreneurs, and some are employed through crowd working or e-services. But this new world of work puts a high premium on workers with skills and qualifications in science and technology, workers less likely to be women. But one has to recognize that in spite of all the successes of the digital revolution, its promises for human well-being remains unfulfilled because of a digital divide. Even though the digital revolution has contributed substantially to human development, access to the digital revolution remains uneven, constraining the even more significant effects it could have on human lives. Developed and developing countries: In 2015, 81% of households in developed countries had Internet access, compared with 34% in developing countries and 7% in the least developed countries. Urban and rural areas: In 2015, 89% of the world’s urban population had 3G mobile broadband coverage, compared with 29% of its rural population. Women and men: In 2013, 1.3 billion women (37%) and 1.5 billion men

LABOR MARKETS, THE RATIO OF PAID TO UNPAID WORK AND THE PREDOMINANT TYPES OF WORKPLACES IN EACH COUNTRY DIFFER—SO THE IMPACTS OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES ON EMPLOYMENT WILL VARY ACCORDINGLY. (41%) used the Internet. Young and old: In 2013, people ages 24 and younger accounted for 42.4% of the world’s population but 45% of Internet users. In 2013 two-thirds of Twitter users aged 15–25. Website content production: This is dominated by developed countries, which in 2013 accounted for 80% of all new domain-name registrations. Registrations from Africa were less than 1%. Broadband coverage and variations in access to computers and smartphones could generate new forms of exclusion. Inexpensive and reliable access to the Internet is becoming imperative and constitutive for driving capabilities in other areas, such as education, work, and political participation. Access to information is crucial for high-quality education, and thus for expanding opportunities for children and youth. The biggest challenge is to make these benefits available for all people, everywhere. The digital divide, however, continues to impede universal benefits and could push those who are already deprived in other areas further behind. Less than half the world’s population (47%) uses the Internet. In the Americas and the Commonwealth of Independent States, two-thirds of the population is online. In Europe, the rate is 79%. In contrast, only around 42% of the people in Asia and the Pacific and the Arab States are connected, and just 25% of those in Sub-Saharan Africa are users. So even though mobile subscriptions and connections in Sub-Saharan Africa are predicted to nearly double between 2013 and 2020 (Figure 5), the question remains who would benefit from it?

FIGURE 5:

Mobile subscriptions and connections in Sub-Saharan Africa, 2013 and 2020 Penetration rate (%)

2020 2013

49%

91%

947 million

65%

564 million

504 million

36% 311

million

Mobile subscribers

Connections

Prices in many regions make connecting prohibitive. Prices for basic mobile or fixed broadband plans, for example, are much higher in less developed countries than in the developed world, and they are highest in LDCs (Figure 6). But even in developed countries, there are digital divides. FIGURE 6:

Prices for Internet access in PPP$, 2015 Monthly cost ($PPP) 140 120 Fixed broadband plan

100

Mobile broadband plan

80 60 40 20 0

World

Developed Countries

Developing Least Countries Developed Countries

To uphold standards of universalism, and to fully benefit from the opportunities that digital revolution holds for human development, striving for universal access to the products of such revolution may be in order. Combined with access to high-quality education, such universal Internet access could significantly increase opportunities and reduce inequalities everywhere. www.ibtbd.net

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