JULY-AUGUST 2015 TK. 100
www.icebusinesstimes.net
VACATION ECONOMY
GOING ON AVACATION CAN SAVE YOUR JOB AND HELP BUILD THE ECONOMY Leather Industry
CAN IT REPEAT THE SUCCESS OF RMG IN BANGLADESH?
Agent Banking
REACHING OUT TO THE HUGE MASS OF UNBANKED POPULATION
Cotton Trading
AN INDEPTH ANALYSIS OF THE $2 BILLION WORTH OF TRADE & BANGLADESH'S STAKE IN IT
CONTENTS July-August 2015
48 Leather
Industry
Aspiring to be the Next RMG
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Agent Banking means providing limited scale banking and financial services to the underserved population through engaged agents under a valid agency agreement, rather than a teller/cashier.
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P. 21
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The leather industry has every potential to grow and is growing rapidly. The greatest advantage of Bangladesh is the huge youth work- force in such a context where almost all other countries have an aging work-force.
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P. 53
“
Despite the overall Asia Pacific region seeing a slight decline in consumer confidence levels (65.5 Index points), Bangladesh recorded the single largest improvement in Asia Pacific, moving from optimistic to very optimistic territory (up 16.9 Index points), making it the only market that saw a double-digit rise in consumer sentiment.
”
P. 69
CONTENTS July-August 2015
P. 11
P. 68
President, FBCCI Chairman Nitol-Niloy Group
Country Manager, MasterCard Bangladesh
Abdul Matlub Ahmad
Syed Mohammad Kamal
P. 24
Barrister Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh, MP
Chairman, Executive Committee Modhumoti Bank Limited
P. 16
Dr. Ahsan H. Mansur Executive Director Policy Research Institute
6.
Editorial
36.
International Around the World by Numbers
Commodity Into the Madding Crowd – Iftar at Chawkbazar
76.
8.
Digital Marketing Chatting, Not so Personal Anymore
38.
Branding Winning Brands of 2015
78.
Tech Giant Microsoft’s Volte-face
44.
Leadership Blue Ocean Strategy
82.
Next Big Thing AR: Seeing is Believing
46
Strategy Know the Best Optimizing Strategy for your Website
85.
Music Industry Taylor Swift Vs Apple: All Not Too Well?
48.
Special Report Leather Industry: Aspiring to be the Next RMG
87.
Travel Europe Calling
59.
Cover Story Vacation Economy
91.
On the Book Shelf Read Before You Think
64.
Tourism On the Right Track
93.
Corporate Fitness Eat, Pray and Stay Fit
68.
Inside Out Syed Mohammad Kamal, Country Manager, MasterCard Bangladesh
95.
Hot on Wheels Top Cars of 2015
100.
Corporate Drudgery The Fallacy of Work-life Balance
102.
Word of Mouth
9.
Column Connectivity: A boon or bane?
11.
Person of Interest Abdul Matlub Ahmad, President, FBCCI, Chairman Nitol-Niloy Group
14.
16.
Agriculture Dr. Mahabub Hossain, Advisor, BRAC Foreign Direct Investment Dr. Ahsan H. Mansur, Executive Director, Policy Research Institute
18.
Banking Agent Banking
30.
Trading Cotton Cramp
72.
Photo Story Le Méridien: Art Meets Hospitality
FROM THE EDITOR We live in the age of information overload. Just typing in two words on google search will produce 3,340,000 results, which clearly shows what a humongous amount of data we are exposed to every single day for the sake of work, entertainment or just leisurely internet browsing. The human brain has a theoretical memory storage capacity of 2.5 petabytes (or a million gigabytes). It won’t be surprising if reading this editorial up to this part is already get your head spinning. Imagine what happens to managers who are exposed to million gigabytes of data every day for many days during their lifetime. Succumbing into utmost boredom and eventually falling prey to work-related stress is the ultimate destiny of these people. Every week they have to wait to cross that finish line on Thursdays that helps them rejuvenate over the weekends but is that really enough? To get rid of this ailment, what we all need is a break. Simply put, weekends are good but what we need is a hiatus that will allow us to breathe in some fresh air in an exotic location, sooth our eyes with scenic beauty or fill our hearts with amazing warmth offered by a new culture. In the big, competitive corporate world, what we need is a respite that will fill our brain with renewed vigor. This issue of ICE Business Times (IBT) sheds light on this very issue of escaping away from the drudgery of modern life and ignites our wanderlust. The health benefits are aplenty. Research by Alertness Solutions has shown that once employees return from a vacation performance can
increase by as much as 80%, and reaction times increases by as much as 40%. Our local companies can learn from the paid-leave programs being followed by Europe and America, which can help boost the productivity of their much maligned and overworked employees. Or we could take Germany for example. Being the eighth most productive country in the world, their long, paid vacations allow for its people to holiday, recuperate and come back as more efficient workers. These vacation-goers are breathing a new life into our tourism sector at the same time. The World Trade Tourism Council (WTTC) estimate that the travel and tourism industry generates 1.2 million jobs within the economy and its growth may lead to an addition 2 million jobs. And thus, the Tourism Board has already begun initiating development projects in Cox’s Bazar and other coastal parts which will create revenue streams worth billions of dollars. This issue of IBT also explores the avenues of Agent Banking, a new concept in Bangladesh that can revolutionize our banking sector and can bring the huge number of unbanked population under the radar of formal financial system. With a series of interviews, we have tried to discuss the various aspects of this topic. Last but not least, we have done a special report on leather industry, which we strongly believe has every potential to repeat the success of the Readymade Garments (RMG) sector in Bangladesh. Read on with us and a Happy Eid Mubarak to all our readers in advance!
JULY-AUGUST 2015 TK. 100
Vol. 5 No. 12
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VACATION ECONOMY Write to us at
editor@icebusinesstimes.net, or send us a note at www.facebook.com/icebusinesstimes www.twitter.com/BusinessTimesBD
Be sure to visit our website for online viewing at www.icebusinesstimes.net
GOING ON AVACATION CAN SAVE YOUR JOB AND HELP BUILD THE ECONOMY Leather Industry
CAN IT REPEAT THE SUCCESS OF RMG IN BANGLADESH?
Agent Banking
REACHING OUT TO THE HUGE MASS OF UNBANKED POPULATION
Cotton Trading
AN INDEPTH ANALYSIS OF THE $2 BILLION WORTH OF TRADE & BANGLADESH'S STAKE IN IT
July-August 2015
Publisher & Editor : Director, International Publications : Executive Director : Managing Editor : Associate Editor : Assistant Editor : Designer : Head of Business Development : Head of Marketing : Assistant Manager Marketing : Finance & Accounts : Sales & Distribution :
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: Bengal Centre, Plot-2,Civil Aviation. New Airport Road, Khilkhet, Dhaka 1229. Editorial Queries: editor@icebusinesstimes.net Advertising, Sales, Subscription and Distribution: 01711339587, 01819412035, 01920335953, 01716783698, 01675736760 Tel: 880-2-8901132, 8901135, 880-2-8901202 Fax: 88-02-8901205 E-mail: businesstimes.1@gmail.com, marketing@icemedialtd.com
Abul Khair Zeenat Chowdhury Nawshin Khair Tawhidur Rashid Nisha Sharmeen Ali Irad Mustafa Sk. Yeahhia Toufiqul Alam Lucky Begum Farha Tani Md. Abdul Alim Md. Manik Mollah Md. Raju Hossain
INTERNATIONAL
Around the World by Numbers
¥
100
Billion
After an ongoing investigation into the irregularities in Toshiba Corp’s accounting practices it has been discovered that they may need to mark down past earnings by ¥ 100 billion ($814 million) due to errors regarding computer parts procurement, bookkeeping problems regarding highway electronic toll collection systems, power meters and semiconductors. The investigation is expected to end mid-July.
28%
China’s efforts to stem the tide of losses on its main stock market failed recently when the Shanghai Composite Index plunged a further 5.8%, taking the drop in share values to 28% since their June peak.
1000
U.S. employers added a solid 223,000 jobs in June, and the unemployment rate fell to 5.3 %, which is the lowest in the past 7 years. The unemployment rate fell from 5.5 percent in May according to the U.S. Labor Department over the past three months.
08
€60 Billion
The IMF has conceded the crisis-ridden Greece, whose banks are down to their final €500 million in cash reserves, needs up to €60 billion (£42 billion) of extra funds over the next three years and large-scale debt relief to create any sort of breathing space to stabilize the economy.
13%
5.3%
An unexpected increase in the number of households saying they do not watch live TV so do not pay for a license has lead to a £150m budget gap in its license fee income due to which the BBC is to cut more than 1000 jobs.
Yelp, the company who publish crowd-sourced reviews about local businesses, as well as online reservation services and food delivery services saw their shares drop by 13% after the company reported its first-quarter earnings. The company reported a net loss of $1.3 million, or 2 cents per share, compared to a 4 cents per share loss in the prior year period.v
16
Gigabytes
Speculators had assumed that next-gen iPhones would start with a storage capacity of 32GB especially after introducing the iOS8. However, Apple has opted continue to with its 16GB option as according to Apple executive Phil Schiller, the rise of cloud storage would help users use less space on their devices.
$18.7
Billion
BP PLC has agreed to pay $18.7 billion (£12 billion) to settle all federal and state claims arising from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which lead to the death of 11 workers, making it the largest environmental fine in US history.
$6 Billion
Japan said on Saturday it would extend around $6 billion (¥750 billion) in development aid to Mekong region countries which includes Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, who all have very strong economic growth potentials.
COLUMN
Connectivity: A boon or bane? What connectivity with India means for Bangladesh and how to reap the benefit of it
By Raihan M Chowdhury
I
In the age of globalisation, we cannot think of our politics and economics detached from our neighbours, that is called 'Balkanisation'. We need to build area specialists or experts. So, under the latest perspective, it is obviously a win-win situation for both the countries in compliance with the ethos of mutual trust. The new road connectivity will bring
benefit for Bangladesh if the country can earn adequate revenue from this facility. A container usually takes 20-25 days and occasionally even up to 60 days to move from New Delhi to Dhaka, as the maritime route is via Bombay and Singapore/ Colombo to Chittagong Port and then by rail to Dhaka. But the same container could have been moved to Dhaka within 3-4 days, if direct rail connectivity and operation existed between New Delhi and Dhaka. Such simple data shows the fact that South Asia is the least integrated region in the world. SAARC did not work out due to the peculiar presence of a large power like India. Every country has relations with India but there is a lack of trust between the countries. Mutual trust is very important for regional integration. However, within the SAARC region there is a potential of sub-regional opportunity. Pakistan, Afghanistan, Maldives and Sri Lanka are far away from the rest of the Eastern part of India, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. In 1997, SAARC adopted an initiative called South Asia Growth Quadrangle (SAGQ) comprising these four countries. It came from the idea of Indonesia-Malaysia-Singapore growth triangle. This SAGQ sub-region enjoys geographical proximity, economic complementarities and socio-cultural similarities favouring greater economic integration. It aimed at boosting cooperation in environment, energy and power, trade and investment, transport, and tourism. The initial four member countries then requested ADB assistance to promote economic cooperation in the sub-region, leading to the creation of the South Asia Subregional Economic Cooperation (SASEC) Programme in 2001. Maldives and Sri Lanka were welcomed as new member countries in May 2014. We cannot change the past, but we can strive to shape a more cooperative future through connectivity. As a Russian proverb puts it pithily, “Forget the past and lose an eye, dwell on the past and lose both the eyes.� The author is the business editor of the Financial Express
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09
PERSON OF INTEREST
“The nation will have a jump start and pretty soon we will see 7 % growth.”
Abdul Matlub Ahmad President, FBCCI Chairman Nitol-Niloy Group
ABDUL MATLUB AHMAD
Prime Minister’s entourage in her official visit to Italy in October 2014 . In an exclusive interview with ICE Business Times, he shares his visions about Bangladesh’s economic growth and investment scenario
I In taste, business preference and education, Abdul Matlub Ahmad is a global personality, who had his masters from the Oxford University in Economics but preferred to enter business. Defying his family’s objection, Ahmad established Nitol Motors in 1981 and eventually inked into joint ventures with Tata Motors in 1990. His businesses hover over Nita Joint Venture, Cement, Insurances, Hero Motors, Curtis paper Mill, Kaliachapra Sugar Mill and many more to come. Abul Matlub Ahmad is considered to be a pioneer in the transport sector of Bangladesh as he came up with several visionary business solutions to make commuting easy through busy cities like Dhaka. The Metro Mass Transport, Easy Truck, Nano Loan Packages, etc. are few of his innovative transport convenient business solutions. Abul Matlub Ahmad was the founder president of BCCI (Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce & Industries), BAAMA(Bangladesh Automobiles Assemblers &Manufactures Association) and past president of BTCCI (Bangladesh Thailand Chamber of Commerce and Industries). He led numerous business delegations of which the last one was as a member of
How do you evaluate the prevailing business and industrial environment In Bangladesh? What is your roadmap to elevate it into newer heights?
Bangladesh has already embarked on a new trajectory of growth. I believe that in traditional world large economies like USA and Japan are not doing well and Asia has become the new Greenfield of growth for quiet sometime. There are three tigers in Asia - China, India and Bangladesh. In China Labor costs are five times and in India three times higher than that of Bangladesh. The benefits being offered by the Government of Bangladesh are one of the best in the world. As a result the whole world is now thinking as Bangladesh as the next destination in the world. Recently, two business delegation which came with Modi , signed $ 5.6 billion worth of investment into Bangladesh. We could never imagine in the past that such a huge investment could be committed. I believe that if political problems are over and business community is ready to expand in the view that Bangladesh has huge domestic market and a growing middle class, the prospect of industrialization never looked so bright as now. I feel we should now tour different part of the world as part of investment delegations and bring back those industries which are suitable to going into production in Bangladesh.
We can buy an existing complete plant at a much cheaper price and we get the technical know-how for the people who had owned the plant, the owner can become the partner by supplying their power plants by joint venture Company. In this model we just have a meeting with the honorable Ambassador of Italy. He has also appreciated the idea of relocation and we believe that within this year a few relocations from Italy will be happening to Bangladesh. FBCCI as a body would like to see industries grow in every district of the country and our Slogan is “Zilay Zilay Shilpo” means industries at every district. If we succeed to achieve that we would be able to create many more employments which is perfectly in line with the vision of the current government. We from FBCCI organize to provide all supports to create entrepreneur of the districts who have a ready piece of land and some money in his pockets. We still provide their working capital. Provided that building that is require for him and even market access for him. I believe such activities will push Bangladesh much faster towards a middle income group.
We think you as a catalyst of change and we are hopeful that you will bring change in the Governance outlook as there is a distance between business and bureaucracy. What are the specific initiatives to bridging this gap or joining the seams or encouraging the entrepreneurs in new venture by reducing the bottlenecks? Private sector has been the driving force behind the growth of Bangladesh and we are fortunate that the government has already acknowledged it. There is no alternate to working hand in hand and for that proper communication is a must. Recently I have seen ministries working closely with development sector, which proves the change has begun. The moment has come when the bureaucrats realized the importance of the need for the private sector lead growth. Everyone is doing their best. I believe that future of Bangladesh is very bright.
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PERSON OF INTEREST
How are you planning to make single digit interest rate possible?
Being a businessman I do not propose anything which doesn’t make any sense. My proposition was to keep the Banking business alive and bring down the interest rate to 9%. After Eid, we are going to have a big round table to figure out ways to achieve that. Simply put, interest rate is very high. Some small entrepreneurs get loans at very high interest rates where as big enterprises get loans for much lower rates. Almost 80% of the Banks are owned by the private sector. So I had a discussion with owners of private banks that first we are business people then we are bankers. As a Bank owner, I will get Tk. 20 crores in a year but as businessman I pay Tk. 400 crore as interest within the same period. This severely hampers the profitability of businesses. I am trying to lower the interest rate. Bank owners are ready. The Government is also on the same page with us. The government has taken a positive step by reducing the interest rate of savings certificates.
Recently FBCCI partnered a seminar with JICA titled “Looking East� where Prof. Fukunari Kimaru of Economic Research Institute for ASEAN and East Asia (ERIA)-a renowned development economist-said that Bangladesh requires a Jump start in manufacturing including spare parts of automobiles. The spare parts industry has a huge potentiality
12
products to? We are requesting the government to amend the policy in favor of our local manufacturers.
In a Market economy businessmen are considered as the main a link of economic development. Under your leadership, how can FBBCI play a key role in connecting the dots of economic development?
Q in the supply chain of motor car industry where benefits are taken by others. You are a seasoned businessman in the Auto parts industry. What kind of prospects do you envision in this sector?
There is a committee of light engineering industry under the Ministry of Commerce, which has been working for the last 14 years. In this connection, I would like to mention about some flaws in our industrial policy. According to that manufactures of vehicles are not allowed to delete their products and buy from local anciliary industries. Either they produce everything themselves or they import everything from abroad. What happens to those manufacturers who are making motor parts locally? Who do they sell their
Today Bangladesh has got investment of $25 billion. Our business people have the courage to invest and succeed. I would like to work as a catalyst in this scenario. I have planned to take business delegations to nations where we have prospects. We are trying to attract investment from abroad. We want to diversify our export basket as well as the export market. With the help of these three strategies, I believe the nation will have a jump start and pretty soon we can see 7 % growth.
Finance Minister has made a provision of special funds for technical education which is very important for forming social capital. Our finance minister is bold enough to preach a 8 % growth target. How do you see this target?
This is a very important thing . A nation cannot be industrialized unless it has industrial hands. Our demographics show that we have almost 65 % young people around 35 years of age, who are strong and energetic. I have always been vocal about reforms in our education system. I strongly believe from class seven onwards pushing people for industrial training will add a new dimension in our education system and will result in higher skill and productivity of our young workforce. We need to train our people from every tier of work, be it entry, mid or top level. Otherwise a huge amount of our hard earned dollars are going to be drained out as expatriate salaries. We have to change that and it cannot be done overnight. We need to change policies in the education system and implement it gradually. Photography By Kazi Mukul
AGRICULTURE
N
Dr. Mahabub Hossain
Advisor, BRAC
“THE GOVERNMENT AND BANGLADESH BANK NEED TO RECONSIDER THE AGRI LOAN CAP BECAUSE THE TARGET GROUP ARE NOT GETTING THE BENEFITS” 14
ow an advisor of BRAC, where he was Executive Director earlier, Dr. Mahbub Hossain has been featured in Foreign Policy, a global magazine of politics and economics, in its list of 500 most prominent individuals in the international arena. He is an Agriculture and Development Economist of international fame. He is also the President of Asian Society for Agricultural Economists (ASAE) and member of ‘Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN)’, a Global Movement, led by the UN Secretary General and member of ‘Knowledge Advisory Commission’ of World Bank president. A Bangladeshi national trained in development economics in the University of Cambridge, UK, Dr. Hossain has made substantial contributions to research on development economics and agricultural policy in South and Southeast Asia. Dr. Hossain was the chief of Social Science Division of IRRI (International Rice Research Institute) prior to joining BRAC in 2007 and was the Director General of BIDS(Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies). In an exclusive interview with ICE Business Times, he shared his thoughts about budget allocation in the agricultural sector. Here is the excerpts of his interview:
What’s your take on the sanction in budget FY 2015-16 in the agro sector?
In sectoral allocation, Agriculture budget controlled by Agriculture Ministry mainly focuses on the crop sector. However, rural development and water development are separated from it. In Agriculture, as we can see, subsidy is gradually rising which was reduced to nadir at eighties but has been reintroduced by the present government since their first term in 1996. Out of the budgeted amount, 80% or 9000 crores are subsidy. Due to huge allocation in subsidy, proper fund is not given in development projects of this sector where R&D (Research and Development) and proper running of research organization require attention. We need to focus on technological development urgently. Since our land is diminishing and population is rising, we need to make the best use of our land. So we have to adopt modern agricultural practices.
DR. MAHABUB HOSSAIN Now a revolution is going on in biological science and biotechnology across the globe where new biotechnological invention has developed in agriculture. In abroad there are quality researches in these fields and we need to focus on getting advantages through these researches. We need to recourse on adaptive research to reaching out to farmers as a priority for applying correct technology suitable to our environment.
The water management and controlling water market is very important for agricultural yields. What is your observation?
We need to give focus on water development. We developed boro cultivation by extracting ground water. Due to this ground water level is going down gradually. So we have to give focus on rain depending crops like Amon and Aus though both are vulnerable crops. Investments in these crops are risky so framers are not interested to grow them. It requires fund to grow high yielding variety. So we need to give emphasis on surface water preserving and development. We need to dig canals, which is why we are repeatedly voicing for Ganga Barrage, with the help of that if we can retain water, we will be able to divert it to costal area for preventing the salinity intrusion. Huge investment is required in this area. There is abundance of water in July and August but acute scarcity prevails from October to November. We can make water reserve by preserving rain water. We can use it for cultivating vegetables which require less water.
You have introduced share cropper loan from BRAC but you have a different opinion regarding Agro credit policy. Would you please
make it clear for our readers?
Agriculture credit is an important constituent of Agriculture. Bangladesh Bank (BB) has given directives to divert a portion of bank loan to agriculture. The target of loan disbursement is more or less achieved but we are concerned about Agri credit for marginal and share croppers. They are not getting loan as per requirement. Banks are not interested to giving loan to poor people of villages because for disbursing Tk. 5 crores of Agri loan requires to deal with huge numbers of people. This will incur a huge operation and monitoring costs at the same time. Bangladesh Bank has lowered the interest ceiling for Agri loan than commercial loan. This doesn’t invoke much interest among commercial banks. Interest is price of loan and in credit market where interest rate is less then lending, cost becomes higher. Even the specialized Bank like Krishi Bank is also giving loan to fish farmers or large farmers. We tried from BRAC to reach out to share croppers, in that case rate of interest was 18 % and above because of supervision cost. Bangladesh Bank gave a revolving fund of Tk. 500 crores to BRAC for this purpose. Other Non-Government Organization (NGOs) and Micros Finance Institutions (MFIs) are charging 27 % and above. They are enjoying this facility and managing their operation and supervision cost out of it. So this issue is very important where less interest cap is given for giving benefits to framers but due to system and disbursement process, the target groups are not getting benefits out of it. But if the rate is flexible or even 11%, then Banks will be interested to disburse loan to farmers. The directives from BB for new Bank is 1: 1 means one branch in urban area against one rural branch where rural branch is incurring loss due to compulsory cap. So this issue requires attention and further revising. The important factor is rate of interest for Agri loan i.e 10 % is not a matter, rather reaching to farmers through
banking channel is important. Sometimes these farmers took loan from money lenders at 120% interest. There are intermediaries in Agri money market. Government and BB are required to reconsider the Argi credit cap.
What about fertilizer price which drive Governments to subsidy?
The price of fertilizer is important but when I spoke to farmers they told me that they wanted fertilizers in proper time and required quality and good quantity. So correcting the distribution channel for fertilizer distribution is very important for the farmers.
What about the budget for livestock sector?
Livestock and fisheries together contribute one-fourth of Agriculture GDP but allocation is less than 10 % of agricultural budget and is being deprived of due Government investment. Income of people are rising and demand for egg, milk, chickens and fish is growing at 6 to 7 % on year on year basis. There are prevalence of diseases in livestock and animals where disease management is not quite sufficient. We need to develop an early warning system for the common diseases and a well developed system for availability of vaccine is also very crucial. There are shortages of manpower in veterinary sectors so it requires developing midlevel technicians who can visit even remote areas and render service for money. We have bull station but require additional insemination diseases treatment management. This is also important for pond fish culture. Other important thing is fish and animal rearing sector demands insurance. Crop insurance is quite difficult because in natural calamities many people were affected where coverage is very difficult. But for fish farmers and animal husbandry, insurances can be possible due to its traceability. In this case for premium, Government needs to give subsidy like 50 percent and rest 50 may be borne by people.
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FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT Dr. Ahsan H. Mansur is the Executive Director of the Policy Research Institute of Bangladesh. Dr. Mansur started his career as a Lecturer, Department of Economics, Dhaka University in 1976. He left for Canada for higher studies in economics in the same year. Dr. Mansur joined the International Monetary Fund under its Economist Program in 1981, and thereafter completed his PhD in Economics (on general equilibrium analysis) from the University of Western Ontario in 1982. Dr. Mansur has published extensively in various prestigious journals (including Econometrica, Journal of Economic Theory, and IMF Staff Papers), edited books on special economic topics and in the IMF Occasional Paper and Working Paper series. His most recently edited book (with Fernando Delgado) is Stock Market Developments in the Countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, published by Palgrave Macmillan in its Finance and Capital Markets Series, November 2008.
“To attain the 50 billion export target in RMG by 2021, we will have to double the investment that we have made so far in the last 36 years in this sector� Dr. Ahsan H. Mansur Executive Director Policy Research Institute
DR. ASHAN H. MANSUR
of AIG’s share, it has started making money already.
Do you think our entrepreneurs are capable of handling the challenges they are offered? Although in policy our economy is market driven but still there are many State owned sectors. Impetus for the growth of private policy is missing in government policies. What’s your take on that?
Today in every sector Bangladesh is almost controlled and operated by private sector. Through the success of state-owned business sector, the phenomenal rise of private sector in Bangladesh has already turned heads in the international arena. The failure of Government management in case of asset or factory is nothing new to us. For example, in the telecom sector the government has posted no success so far in comparison to the contemporary private tele-operators.. There was a time when people used to stand in long queues for a single landline connection. Nowadays, operators are chasing customers for providing the same service. The tele-penetration is 60 times higher than what it used to be 20 years ago. The extraordinary growth in this sector owes much to investment from private sector and abroad. Much of government’s spending in state-owned projects have political motives behind them and which is why lacks desired accountability. We can cite one example from the USA. When the financial meltdown happened in Europe and America, the US Government totally purchased, AIG, one of the world’s biggest insurers. In course of time, they have turned the table again, with the offloading
I found a prevalence of crony capitalism in Bangladesh which has a serious bad impact. This is something we saw in Philippines and Indonesia after the fall of Marcos and General Suharto. These two countries are still bearing the brunt of nepotism that was nurtured once in the government sector. It is not a good practice: it hinders the development of enterprises. Business community should talk and mix up with the government but patronizing should be for all, for a chosen group of people. There is a tendency among our industrial community to avoid competition. To win the competition against world class products flooding our commodity market, locally produced goods must be on par with them when it comes to quality. This is important for our consumer rights. Our success in Readymade garment (RMG) sector is note-worthy where with the support of government, the factory owners made the ultimate development through a free channel. Irony is we couldn’t replicate the same model in other sector. We have expertise in manufacturing biscuits since the British Period. Yet a 200% tariff on imported biscuits is preventing local manufacturers to enter into the competition and prove their mettle. We have to come out from infant industry. Other Asian countries are going for FTA (Free Trade Agreement). With the current protective nature of investment, nobody will do FTA with us. We want duty free access from others but are not ready to give the same. This shortcoming is affecting our competitiveness and resulting in sufferings for consumers. We need to get rid of this.
What about FDI (Foreign Direct Invest)? Where are we lagging behind? We are saying many things rhetorically but in reality Bangladesh is not a welcoming state for foreign investment. Let’s take an example of Grameen Phone (GP), which is the highest FDI investor. They are providing telecommunication facilities to 45 Million people. We cannot deny their achievement. What it gets in return is high corporate tax, around 45%; though as a public listed company they should be charged a tax around 25-27%.. We established Korean Export Processing Zone (KEPZ) in private sector. Nevertheless, they are not able to transfer any plot to other entrepreneurs . This is very disgraceful Individually no foreign investor can invest in the RMG sector. To attain the 50 billion export target by 2021, we will have to double the investment that we have made in last 36 years so far in this sector. To do so, local investment is not enough. So we need to allow foreign investment in this sector. Bottlenecks like land price and high cost of doing business need to be removed.
What about the mindset of our policymakers? is it not inviting enough? We have to change our mindset. Political leaders have to understand that promoting extortion is a big impediment in the way of augmenting investment. It has to be controlled and we have to improve governance. I have serious doubts about whether the new generation entrepreneurs will stay in this country or not. To make it livable for the second generation, we have to think glocal. At the same time, our government should come up with strategies which puts in favorable condition with that of other governments.
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BANKING
$
Agent Banking: Banking with New Face
A new concept, the implementation of which can revolutionize our banking sector By Asaduzzaman
T
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The agent banking model is one in which banks provide financial services through non-bank agents, such as grocery stores, retail outlets, post offices, pharmacies, or lottery outlets. This model allows banks to expand services into areas where they do not have sufficient incentive or capacity to establish a formal branch, which is particularly true in rural and poor areas where as a result a high percentage of people are unbanked. Agent banking is quickly becoming recognized as a viable strategy in many countries for extending formal financial services into poor
and rural areas. Other countries in Latin American have followed suit, including Mexico, Peru , Colombia , Ecuador , Venezuela ,Argentina , and Bolivia . Other countries around the world have also utilized the agent banking model to expand financial services, including Pakistan, Philippines, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, and India. The regulation, design, and implementation of agent banking vary across countries. These differences are evident in the variety of services offered by agents, the types of businesses acting as agents, the types of financial institutions that work through agents and the business structures employed to manage them. These differences ultimately contribute to the disparities in the extent to which agent banking is actually bridging the financial inclusion gap. Bangladesh Bank has gone a long way and farmed the policy guidelines for Agent Banking in 2013. Some new Banks were given operating permission.
Kenya: A Note-worthy Success
In Kenya, Agent banking is governed by the Prudential Guideline issued by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK). It became operational on 1st May 2010. In February 2011, the Central Bank of Kenya released regulations allowing banks to offer services through third party agents approved by
AGENT BANKING the CBK. The use of the Agent banking model by banks has continued to improve access of banking services since its launch in 2010. As at 30th June 2013, CBK had authorized 13 commercial banks to offer banking services through third parties (agents). Since 2010, a total of 19,649 agents had been contracted facilitating over 58.6 million transactions valued at Kes. 310.5 billion. The increased number and value of transactions demonstrate the increased role of agent banking in promoting financial initiatives being championed by the Central Bank. Though Agency have not yet gotten any headway in Kenya but agent banking got root. Kenya’s quick start is largely attributed to the already developed network of agents used in Kenya’s highly successful mobile banking model, M-Pesa, which was leveraged in the initial implementation of the agent banking model.
Brazil: Banking is a mark of prudence
Brazil is often recognized as a global pioneer in this area since it was an early adopter of the model and over the years has developed a mature network of agent banks covering more than 99% of the country’s municipalities. In Brazil, banking agents are allowed to perform the following transactions: receiving and forwarding applications for deposit accounts, term deposit accounts, and savings accounts; receipts and payments relative to deposit accounts, term deposit accounts, and savings accounts, as well as contributions and withdrawals in investment funds; receipts, payments, and other activities linked to accords for the rendering of services kept by the contractor in the form of
the current regulation; payments; receiving and forwarding loan requests and financing requests; credit analysis and registration; execution of collection services; receiving and forwarding credit card applications; other control services, including data processing, from convened operations; international money transfers to a limit of $ 3,000 per transaction; and other activities permitted by the Central Bank of Brazil. Agent Banking Services in Bangladesh: A strong guide line by the Central Bank: Bangladesh Bank with a view to make complimentary channel to reach to the poor segment of the society as well as existing bank customer with a range of financial services especially to geographically dispersed locations. An agent can act as agent of more than one bank at a time but at the customer end point a retail outlet or sub agent of an agent shall represent and offer banking services of only for a single bank. Agent Banking Services are : Collection of small value cash deposits and cash withdrawals (ceiling should be determined by BB from time to time );Inward foreign remittance disbursement; facilitating small value loan disbursement and recovery of loans, installments; facilitating utility bill payment; cash payment under social safety net program of the Government; facilitating fund transfer(ceiling should be determined by BB from time to time);collection and processing of forms/documents in relation to account opening, loan application, credit and debit card application from public; Post sanction monitoring of loans and advances and follow up of loan recovery Receiving of clearing cheque. Other functions like collection of insurance premium including microĐ insurance etc
As per the guideline an Agent must provide, as a minimum, cash deposit and cash withdrawal services. The agent's activities would be within normal course of banking business of the scheduled banks but conducted at places other than bank premises/ ATM booths. Agent must provide services in the designated business premises. The following organization or institutions may be agents: MFIs, registered NGOs; Cooperative Societies; Courier and Mailing Service Companies, any company, Agents of Mobile Network Operators; Offices of rural and urban local Government institutions; Union Information and Service Center (UISC); Educated Individuals capable to handle IT based financial services, agents of insurance companies, owners of pharmacies, chain shops and petrol pumps/ gas stations. Bangladesh Bank is very cautious regarding Anti Money Laundering Compliance. With three different interviews, ICE Business Times finds out more about the prospects and possibilities of Agent Banking.
58.6m
Since 2010, a total of 19,649 agents had been contracted facilitating over 58.6 million transactions valued at Kes. 310.5 billion.
Through the following three interviews, ICE Business Times explores many facets of Agent Banking and its prospects and possibilities in Bangladesh.
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S.K. Sur Chowdhury Deputy Governor, Bangladesh Bank
“Agent banking will be the key driver to bring all of our country’s people into the banking service sector and will be the emblem of financial freedom of the people.’’ Photography by Din M Shibly
AGENT BANKING
$ Shitangshu Kumar Sur Chowdhury has been working at the Bangladesh Bank for over three decades. Over the years, he acquired enviable excellence in financial sector regulation, supervision, crisis prevention and management and financial sector stability in home and abroad. At present he is an Alternate Director of ACU (Asian Clearing Union) while simultaneously, Chairman of APRACA (Asian Pacific Rural and Agricultural Credit Association), Supervisory Forum of SEANZA (South East Asia, New Zealand & Australia), Bangladesh Steering Committee of UNGCLN ( United Nations Global Compact Network), Sovereign Bond Transection Execution Committee, Ministry of Finance, Govt. of Bangladesh and a member of Governing Board BIBM ( Bangladesh Institute of Bank Management) at length. In an exclusive interview with ICE Business Times, he shared his ideas about Agent Banking. Excerpts.
It is heartening to know that Bangladesh Bank has digitized itself as a regulator. As part of your drive of innovation under financial inclusion you are going to introduce Agent Banking which will ultimately revolutionize the financial sector and included Unbanked people into the banking network. Would you please give a detailed description of this for readers of the Business Times?
Bangladesh Bank has been striving towards diverse financial inclusion initiatives for than half a decade now to ensure inclusive growth. The core target group of financial inclusion initiative is the non-privileged, underserved population and the poor segment of the society, especially from geographically remote locations. And the main goal of financial inclusion is to bring these people under formal or regulated financial services. So, financial inclusion is not only creating access to finance or designing of low cost financial products but also diversifying alternative service delivery channels. This has driven the Bangladesh Bank to introduce Agent Banking in 2013. We have created access to finances for the underprivileged and underserved segments of the population by ensuring agricultural credit even to marginal farmers and sharecroppers; making finance easy to micro, small and medium entrepreneurs, especially the women; pioneering ‘green’ or environmentally responsible finance. We also instructed banks to open No Frill Accounts for the unbanked segments of the population. These accounts are ‘No Frill’ which mean the account
holders have to bear only the basic cost of opening and maintaining the account. We have instructed banks to open 50% of their newer branches in rural areas, and to introduce the revolutionary aspect of Mobile Banking to people but still a gap remainded,There was a “missing link” which we need to reach the unbanked. Hence, we started brainstorming conducted studies and launched pilot programs. We found that opening and maintaining branches in rural and remote areas are expensive and do not generate enough revenue. But our commitment has always has been to provide banking services even to the furthest corner of the country which ultimately resulted in a new horizon of opportunity‘banking without branches’. We found a model where banking services can be provided without a branch whilst still under the full control of the banks. Consquently, Bangladesh Bank issued ‘Guidelines on Agent Banking for the Banking’ on December 2013. Agent Banking means providing limited scale banking and financial services to the underserved population through engaged agents under a valid agency agreement, rather than a teller/cashier. It is the owner of an outlet who conducts banking transactions on behalf of a bank.
Bangladesh has been awarded with the Noble Peace Prize for the Microcredit Model. There are 560 MFI (Micro Finance Institutions) swarming in the market those who have high operation cost and interest caps. Possibly Agent Banking will minimize it including horizontal integration of these services? You hold a positive mindset and would you please give a
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BANKING
short description of your vision and evaluation in this respect?
We don’t want the banks to be competing with other financial intermediaries like MFIs or we are never in favor of addressing the issues of other financial intermediaries as there are different regulatory agencies. But, what we really want is to provide banking services even to the remotest corner of the country at an affordable cost. That’s where Agent banking comes in. The most interesting part of this model is that it is economically feasible in both rural and urban areas. In the metropolitan and urban areas of Bangladesh, a large segment of population is out of banking services. Most of these unbanked people can’t afford or don’t have access to this branch banking model. So, agent banking has that potentiality to serve the underserved people of both urban and rural areas. Yet, in our framework, we have emphasized the rural areas. According to the guidance note issued by Bangladesh Bank on June 2014, the ratio of the number of sub-agents/outlets of a bank will be 2:1 for rural and urban area. That means, a bank must have at least 2 rural agent banking outlets to have 1 urban agent banking outlet. Moreover, the accountholders under agent banking are the regular clients of banks. So, customers cannot be charged directly by the agents for providing services to them, rather they will collect a reasonable fee from the banks for providing this service.
As on today 65 percent of the people of our country are out of the banking network or taking loans and advances from informal markets. We hope agent banking will create headway in this field. Bangladesh Bank has a well depicted
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According to the guidance note issued by Bangladesh Bank on June 2014, the ratio of the number of sub-agents/outlets of a bank will be 2:1 for rural and urban area. That means, a bank must have at least 2 rural agent banking outlets to have 1 urban agent banking outlet.
guideline and latest issued circular also. Would please give us how many bank applied for this option?
The regulatory structure is very strong and well built. In this backdrop, we have sat with banks to motivate them to go for agent banking. They have mentioned that development of agent banking software and integration of this software with their Core Banking Systems is a lengthy issue so that still needs to be tackled. Moreover, selection of an agent is tricky part in this regard. But, we are not in a hurry, because, a measured but solid start of agent banking will set it to a solid base that will drive it to true success. In this respect, 5 banks have already gotten approval from Bangladesh Bank for agent banking till now. I have also heard that more banks are preparing themselves to apply for approval.
This model is very successful in Brazil,
Columbia and Malaysia. The traditional Branch based Bank and MFIs across the country may try to oppose it or embrace it with horizontal integration. What would you say about that?
We sent our people to Brazil and Malaysia to learn from their experiences before formulating the guidelines. And, we also observed the challenges and problems of those countries at the early stage of agent banking model implementation. We have learned from them and tried to make our model better and more befitting for the structure our country. After the issuance of the guidelines, I have seen that they were embraced with interest and enthusiasm from the banking community. As for MFIs, they should be very happy to be engaged with this model. According to our guidelines, NGOĐMFI’s regulated by MRA can be agents under agent banking. So, it’s a lucrative business opportunity for them as well. In fact, some NGO-MFIs have already contacted banks about working as agents for them. So, there is no question of opposition. It will be a wishful horizontal integration.
Finally, what is your vision and expectation regarding agent banking? Our vision in central bank is to facilitate in building up an inclusive and sustainable economy and society. For that, we are relentlessly putting in our best efforts to make the financial system inclusive and sustainable. We want to bring the entire population of our country under banking services. My vision is, agent banking will be the key driver to bring all the people of our country into the banking service sector and agent banking will be the emblem of the financial freedom of the people.
Barrister Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh MP
Chairman Executive Committee Modhumoti Bank Limited
“What intrigued us was the huge opportunity of reaching out to people of rural areas who are engaged in various financial transactions through informal channels.� Photography by Kazi Mukul
AGENT BANKING
Agent Banking has captured worldwide attention. Brazil took the lead and was recognized as the model for Agent Banking where 90% of the Municipalities’ are under the cover of agent banking. How did this mass Banking service for people catch your focus?
$ Barrister Fazle Noor Taposh is a Member of the Parliament and one of the shining young political icons of today. He is a member of the Honorable Society of Lincoln’s Inn, U.K; member of Bangladesh Bar Council and has been practicing in the High Court Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. He is also a member of the International Bar Association and Working Group on Energy and Natural Gas. His legal orientation is concentrated in Company Law, Commercial Law, Criminal Law and Constitutional Law (Law of Judicial Review). Professionally he worked as Local legal Counsel in various projects funded by the World Bank, Department for International Development of UK (DFID), Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Japan Bank of International Co-operation (JBIC). He has also enriched the activities of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Ministry of Food and Committee on Estimate. In an exclusive interview, he enumerates how Modhumoti Bank Limited envisions to reaching to people’s doorstep with Agent Banking.
We at Modhumoti Bank aim to establish an institution that is financially inclusive. The lion’s share of our population is still unbanked. Even after the success of Mobile Banking, 50 % people are still out of the banking system. To reach out to that untapped client base, we have been proactive from the beginning of our journey. We were issued a license during a time when international donor agencies like the World Bank and others suggested that the government should only issue licenses with the focus of brining the unbanked population under the radar of a formal system of financial transactions. Since then this 50% unbanked population has been a major concern for me and I knew this would be a challenging issue to overcome. With a paid up capital of Tk. 400 crores and many more stringent rules by the central bank to comply with, we thought about schemes that will not only ensure profit but also let us emerge as a strong proponent of inclusive banking. While going through several policies, I found out that the Bangladesh Bank has stated that a bank can use the Digital Centers in Union levels as well as Post Offices, NGO Outlets, etc. for providing their services through Agent Banking. We already know that under the leadership of present government, Digital Centers have come a long way by imparting knowledge among the common people of villages. Agent Banking allows you to actually bring the people within the
financial inclusion which is not possible in mobile banking, which only allows people to transfer money. What intrigued us was the huge opportunity of reaching out to people of rural areas who are engaged in various financial transactions through informal channels. The social aspect of inclusive banking sounds so promising that even with little of over one year’s experience in the banking business, we have taken up the challenge to go for Agent Banking.
Modhumoti Bank is making a difference in its vision, mission and activities. You are striving to add something in SME and others fields. What is the driving force behind this? I would like to add that this is only Bank which has special schemes for freedom fighters. At the same time we are offering facilities like special counters, special lending rate, etc. for them. Every year we arrange a special campaign for freedom fighters. We are the only financial institution in Bangladesh which through the Banking services tend to show some respect and express tribute towards them.
One challenge is that MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) companies have diluted agency businesses and another are the fraudulent practices of the so called agencies in the informal money market. What are your thoughts regarding this? We hope to stop these trends by providing adequate banking services. You know there was a
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BANKING time when hundi was the only way to remitting money? Nevertheless, things have changed. Since the Government has given various scopes and opportunities of remitting money through the legal banking channels, hundi has become almost obsolete. Other than big money transfers, the average people of rural areas don’t like to go for hundi anymore. So, we are gaining success in this field through our services, a2i support and our platforms.
Are the intermediaries in the informal rural system creating problems?
Yes and that’s why we need to work intently. We want to remove the intermediary process and rather wish to be linked with customer directly. Agent banking can ensure that villagers have direct access to banking services for their day to day needs. Services like depositing remittances and collecting dues from various schemes from Government programs (like safety net money, freedom fighters allowances, widow allowances) and paying utility bills can be done from nearby access points. Providing services at their doorstep will further encourage them to familiarize themselves with these schemes.
How long before Agent Banking is fully functional?
We have got three more years to implement Agent Banking. There are 4500 outlets of Digital Centers in the Union level. Then we will try to engage the Digital Centers at the Municipality level. By that time, Postal Centers will be developed as the Government has been working to turn them into E-post Centers. We would like to extend Agent Banking facilities to a point when there will be as many as 8500 outlets across the country. However, I think, for the initial phase 4500 is more than enough.
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We want to remove the intermediary process and rather wish to be linked with customer directly. Agent banking can ensure that villagers have direct access to banking services for their day to day needs.
Do think that it could be a threat for traditional Banking?
You see, through the ages things change. This is something that is not what conventional Banking is used to. What was modern 20 years back is outdated now. Technology changes peoples mind. So I cannot say whether Agent Banking will be a threat to Traditional Banking but I can definitely say that it will be a revolution.
Have you faced problems regarding the infrastructure in remote areas? Initially there would be challenges like infrastructural issues but most of the DCs (Digital Centers) are
technology based. Fiber optics connections are already in place. I strongly believe within five years many challenges regarding infrastructure will be overcome and by that time we will also be more efficient and compatible.
This means within five years you will have to learn lessons and time to time develop the system and try to innovate it in new ways.
Yes, but we will strictly remain within the guidelines of Bangladesh Bank. An issue would be the security matter like Internet networking security, data security, internet backbone security. The a2i is working hard on that and compliance has to be strictly met. Also the issue regarding anti-money laundering is ever-present. We have been pondering about it since day one and will go by the book. Customers also know about our position, that we are very strict on compliance issues.
In truest sense we are in the Asian age of world development. It is said now that Bangladesh is thriving on opportunity as well as there are challenges. Geopolitically we are in advantageous position. Comment please.
I always tell people that Bangladesh is a country with a dream. Good thing is that under the leadership of Prime Minister Shiekh Hasina we will be able to realize that dream. We will be able to create the opportunities. That is very important. Connectivity needs to be established with other SAARC countries and this will improve the economic scenario to open new avenues. So, it is time to realize these dreams and make things happen.
TECH GIANT
Md. Mizanur Rahman
Founder Managing Director, Modhumoti Bank Limited
$
00
“With Agent Banking, we will be able to usher a new era of Banking that will take services to the doorstep of people who are in much need of this.” At the age of 63, Md. Mizanur Rahman is leading a dynamic team of bankers at Modhumoti Bank Limited, a premier 4th Generation Bank. He started his career with Sonali Bank, the largest State owned Commercial Bank of Bangladesh. He was instrumental to reinvigorate state owned Development Banking through envisioning new journey of BDBL (Bangladesh Development Bank Limited) as a State Owned Commercial Bank and gave it a new lease of life by restructuring and successful merging of twin DFI’s (Development Financial Institutions) namely BSB (Bangladesh Shilpa Bank) and BSRS (Bangladesh Shilpa Reen Shangstha). In an interview with ICE Business Times, this veteran banker talks about his aspirations regarding Agent Banking.
Photography by Kazi Mukul
AGENT BANKING
As we know that Modhumoti Bank Limited is pioneer in Agent Banking in Bangladesh. What inspired you to set for this new but challenging journey?
Agent Banking is a new concept. In Bangladesh, it will be strongly supported by the Access to Information (a2i) program. Though there are 56 scheduled banks in Bangladesh, around 55% of our population is outside the formal banking services network. There is no iota of doubt that our villagers are in dire need of banking services for their day to day transactions. As bankers, it is our mission to figure out to bank the unbanked population. The outcome of this earnest drive is Agent Banking which we choose as our destination. We think that only big chunk corporate loan is not enough for economic development and industrialization. Our traditional Banking is centering on this Banking practices, where we are trying to coming out of this idea and inertia. So there are avenues like Micro, SME (Small and Medium enterprise) loan facilities which are considered to be an important tool of economic emancipation where private banks can play a laudable role. With Agent Banking, we will be able to usher a new era of Banking that will take services to the doorstep of people who are in much need of this.
Where are you going to start real time Agent Banking? Where will you begin the pilot project?
Our Pilot project will be started from Sokhipur. It is situated in Tangail, Bangladesh. We are using the IT back bone of Union Digital Center (UDC) there, which is already well-equipped with facilities that are needed for Agent Banking. People of that area are also aware of and accustomed with the services
provided by the UDC. It is worth mentioning here that Access to Information (a2i) is a massive program in accordance of digital Bangladesh dream of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, which is being implemented in many sectors already. The Government did it in the Upazila with state of the art IT-services and support system. Agent Banking system will use this existing infrastructure. This is why we have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Wednesday 17th June, 2015 with Access to Information (a2i) to use this new window of opportunities unleashed by the Union Digital Center (UDC) facilities. With singing of this MOU an impetus was created to its stakeholders. In addition of that it made headway to introduce Agent Banking in Bangladesh. Basically, it is a window dressing of a revolutionary step to enlighten people through IT system and services. Under the cover of this agreement Modhumoti Bank shall be able to provide banking services like account opening, Cash deposit, Cash withdrawal, Money transfer, Utility Bill Payment, Payment of Inward Foreign Remittance, Balance Inquiry, Loan initiation etc. through their agents.
The SWOT analysis of agent banking points out threats like money laundering and bad precedence of MLM (Multi-Level Marketing )companies where Agents participations are not so integrated in their marketing pyramid that left many people financial impoverished. On the other hand there are also MFI’s (Micro Credit Institutions) who have wider coverage and
operational areas. They may also contend the area.
There are MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) scam and bad experience. But bad example is not always an example. There are enough safeguard in Agent Banking Policies and a well prepared Guidelines of Bangladesh Bank which covered everything. On the other hand there are precautionary methods from our sides also but we cannot seat idle. Rather we have to roll and act by taking challenges in quest of making the unbanked population banked. In rural level there are contenders like MFI’s and they have wider network. But peoples are seeking reliefs from high rate of interest. We wish to open a new window of opportunity for them with less interest but best quality services.
Could you please give us a short account of other special schemes of Modhumoti Bank?
Being a war veteran myself, I have a special corner for the fellow freedom fighters, for who at Modhumoti Bank we have first-of-its-kind schemes and packages. We believe, without the active participation of women, economy cannot move forward. Modhumoti Labonnyo is a Banking scheme for encouraging women entrepreneurs. In addition of that we are offering MODHUMOTI-Goti, MODHUMOTI-Agrogoti, MODHUMOTI Progoti, MODHUMOTI Moushumi. Finally, we are offering special reward packages like the courageous entrepreneurs will be able to capitalize the reward point by maintaining the proper repayment schedule. Each installment repayment will offer 10 value rewards and after capitalizing the 200 reward the customer could get gift voucher /cash discount/priority service to the strategic alliance organization.
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TRADING
Cotton Cramp
What it means for Bangladesh if the yearly $2 billion worth trading of the cotton market experiences a windfall in price?
By Asaduzzaman
COTTON Bangladesh, the second largest operator in RMG imports $2 billion worth cotton in $16 billion global market and accounts for 16 % of global cotton trade. Every year almost $4 billion imports are registered in cotton and yarn trade. The import of raw cotton was $1.88 billion in FY 2014-15 (July-April), down 6.47% year-on-year. Reversely, imports of Yarn accounts for $1.519 billion in the respective period, registering a 3.08 % growth, according to the report of Bangladesh Bank based on monthly customs report. Bangladesh is a the second largest operator in RMG where yarn makers are the first step suppliers who had indulged in different interest with cotton imports which make a ground of interline competition across the RMG’s backward linkages. As per operation cost is concerned, a spinner has to spend 60% production cost of Yarn making cost to procure cotton. Simultaneously, sale price of Yarn is 4 % more than India and China which has now come down to the same level as India, according to industry insiders. A report of U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA) says, “Price of cotton has registered an upward change 5.33% per lb (Pound) which was 63.98 cents per pound in Nov 2014 where it took an upward swing and stands at 67.74 cents per pound May 2015.� The insiders of cotton opines that this windfall rise in the price of this basic raw material is posed to create a tumbling shock in the clothing industry as well as the supply chain as there are numerous stakeholders and end-users across the continents in general and cross industry users in particular. Cotton is one of the most important textile fibers in the world, accounting for around 35% of total world fiber use. While some 80 countries from around the globe produce cotton, China, India and United States (CIA) combined provide two-thirds of the world's cotton. The leader exporter United States ranks third in production behind China and India and accounts for over one-third of global trade in raw cotton. According to a report of Bangladesh
Spining Mills 500 400 300 200 100 0
Unit
2000
2005
2015
*As because of cotton price debacle of 2007 growth of spinning mills slowed down
Yarn and cotton pricec trend
4 3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0
Price $
Cotton
Yarn Cotton
2000
Yarn Cotton
2011
Yarn Cotton
2012
Yarn
2013
* As cotton accounts for 60% cost of Yran and charts represents spreads between cotton and yarn price
Cotton import Trends 4.5 4 3.5 3 2.5
Cotton import Trends Qt M. Ton
2 1.5 1 0.5 0 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011 2013 2014 * Demand for cotton as per capicity of Spinning mills are 10.5 Milions. There are gaps between demand and supply
200%
Copmprasion of Stock to use ration with ROW (Rest of the world)
180% 160% 140% 120% 100%
China
80%
ROW
60% 40% 20% 0% 2000-01
2005-06
2010-11
2015-16
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TRADING Textiles Mills Association (BTMA), Bangladesh is sourcing mainly from Uzbekistan (Type SM Grade 3.5-4.9) where price per pound staple cotton was 81.85 cents in June, up 2.44 % from May. Correspondingly, from India it was 72.23 US cents in June (GradeS-6), up 2.45% from May where from Africa (Bali, Tango, Benin, B.Fasco) it was 72.89 in June, up .89 % and from USA it was 78.08 cents in June, demonstrating a rise of 0.10%. Preferring anonymity, a source informed about the dumping of Indian yarn in Bangladesh market. It is due to the prevailing price difference where Bangladesh Yarn price is higher than that of China and India. Spinning mills are now operating at less than full capacity because in full capacity there will be demand of cotton at least 10 million bales which is 2.5 times more than present level. Moreover, selling price of Chinese and Indian yarn is 4% below the domestic price. This is a two-way traffic. Cotton and yarn are the raw materials of spinning sector and fabrics industry respectively. As the Primary Textiles Industry (PTI) is concerned, lobby in import and smuggling of yarn from cross border causes different selling prices of yarn which creats a room for dumping and selling in lower price. Cotton import has zero tariff facility and prices are much lower than the quoted prices. A specific group is using these facilities for other purpose to avoid the Customs inspections at the same time taking benefits of cotton stock trade as the demand for cotton is rising 4 % on year on year basis.
Cotton prices and hedging:
Pegging and forward contracts systems are associated with cotton prices. Therefore, farm price and spot price differ from each other. The average spot quotations are 41 cents and turns 63.06 cents
through several hands. It is traded through Intercontinental Commodities Exchange (ICE). Cotton procurement is a complicated method. The electronic ICE market is eighteen hours a day. Every moment prices may fluctuate depending on a wide range of reasons starting from bad weather forecast to military conflicts to bad economic indicators of major countries. International cotton market is no difference and a simple speculation can spread in seconds to affect the commodity price. Hedging strategies protect the buyers against price slide when they purchase cotton or any other commodity. For example, if a buyer purchases cotton at $1 a pound and the price goes down to 80 cents, the buyer will pay the lower price or he/she can go for a fixed price contract under which he/she will pay spot price regardless of the
prevailing price. The spinners faced serious issues of cotton stock and price in 2007 and then urged for facilities to the Bangladesh Bank. The Central Bank set up a committee and agreed that the committee might allow hedging on a case-to-case basis. As a result of cotton crisis in 2007, Bangladesh Bank declared a circular on 4th May, 2008 titled as “Hedging the price risk of commodities� which describes that Authorized Dealers (AD) must completely hedge the commodity price risk arising from the commodity hedge transactions by booking back to back transaction with banks having international standing or their branches operating in Bangladesh. Bangladesh Textile Mills Association also identifies hedging as a vital strategy to reduce the risk
COTTON
of adverse price movements. On condition of anonymity, highly placed sources of Bangladesh Bank said that the risk coverage is the main issue and there are conflicting parties like traders and spinners. Sources expressed that hedge market is a critical market and needs proper understanding of the market price of cotton and yarn, especially yarn which is the produce of spinning mills and an import item for Bangladesh. The sources in Bangladesh Bank opined that all the parties coming into a conscious policy proposal can expedite the hedging process. Moreover, awareness among trading circle is required.
Cotton game:
An internecine competition among CIA is making the market volatile. World stocks are more than double
mainly due to cotton policies in China, which supported domestic and world prices above market-clearing levels. The shift of the Chinese government from a price support to an income support program and intention to impose stricter limits on imports – are largely responsible for driving the cotton situation. China is not only the world’s largest producer and consumer of cotton; it is also the top importer (accounting for about 34% of global cotton imports) and holds an estimated 60% of global cotton stocks. On the supply side, USA exports around 80% of the 2.8 million tons of cotton produced in the country or 25% of global cotton exports. USA used to be the main supplier of cotton to China, but policy changes, competition and weather have all contributed to a significant change in the cotton export market matrix in last few years. Meanwhile, India has become the top cotton supplier to China. According to United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), India’s cotton exports to China stood at around one million tons (about 21% of total cotton imports by China) in last year but it grew to around 1.16 million tons in last year which is almost 40% of China’s total cotton imports in the year, much ahead of USA’s 20%. Australia’s share has also increased steadily to around 20% of cotton imports by China. India’s cotton production is predicted to reach around 6.3 million tons while consumption is projected at around 5.4 million tons. India’s overall cotton export is likely to decline around 36% to 1.26 million tons but developments in China may help push India’s cotton exports higher. Cotton production in China is projected to decline 7% to around 6.4 million tons due to discontinuation of cotton subsidies
while consumption is expected to rise to 7.9 million tons. International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) said that consumption in China is expected to recover next year due to an anticipated decline in both international and domestic prices and improved demand overseas for downstream goods.
Cotton production and demand in Bangladesh: Bangladesh raw cotton imports are estimated at 4 million bales and witnessing strong demand from the spinning sub-sector and currently Uzbekistan and India are the major suppliers of raw cotton to Bangladesh. Sources said that USA’s share in Bangladesh raw cotton market declined from 14 to 5% as a number of Bangladesh importers defaulted on contract commitments. With increased demand from both the domestic textile market and the export oriented RMG sector imports of yarn demands 400,000 tons. On the other side India continues to remain as the principal supplier of yarn to Bangladesh with around 75% of the market share. Cotton is the second most important cash crop in Bangladesh after Jute. However, the lack of short duration, high yielding and pest tolerant cotton seed varieties along with increasing competition for limited acreage in Bangladesh—are the constraints of cotton production. Cotton cultivation is susceptible to excessive rainfall and flooding, so cotton growing conditions have been generally favorable during the critical growing period (July to December) over last few years. Assuming normal weather conditions, Bangladesh cotton production is forecasted to reach 144,000 Bangladeshi bales (26,182 tons – a Bangladeshi bale is 400 lbs) from 45,000 hectares.
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TRADING
Bangladesh cotton production in around 2 lacs tons Bangladeshi bales (23,455 tons), harvested from 40,000 hectares. This includes 114,000 bales of American variety medium staple, and 15,000 bales of short staple up-land cotton (locally known as “Comilla” cotton).
Yarn and cotton dilemma:
Spinning sector is a vital sector for industrialization of Bangladesh. According to the statistics of BTMA, there are 16 synthetic spinning mills and 8 acrylic spinning mills in yarn manufacturing category which have an annual yarn spinning capacity of 2100 million kgs. The fabrics manufacturing category has existing 26 Denim , 22 Home Textiles, and 93 knit fabrics mills with annual woven fabrics manufacturing capacity of 2800 million meters and 236 mills in Dying- Printing – Finishing capacity with an annual fabrics processing capacity of 2600 million meters If 100 % capacity is utilized( 480 lbs each ). Monsoor Ahmed, The secretary of the BTMA, termed it a continuous process which depends upon purchase and selling, so, there are stock in and stock out in
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cotton trade where price is determined by the market. Many factories are in the queue of production but yet to set about due to lack of gas connection. Infrastructural challenges are the roadblocks in this sector. Since cotton is the basic raw material which we don’t produce and demand is high and growing, procurement of cotton requires a certain policy. Therefore, hedging policy is required. Ahmed vehemently argued that Government is giving incentives to different sectors which have million figure exports and their export pie is very limited and potentiality is also not so promising but incentives are required for the backward linkages of RMG to add more value. Textile sector is in need of investment, employment opportunities and marketing facilities. He informed that the bothering issue is dearth of land. Land price is skyrocketing and even if the land is procured, investors have to go through many other lengthy processes. Ahmed said that government is eager for investment. In Bangladesh export, 80% contribution is from RMG sector so there are unending potentialities of investment in its backward and forward linkage industry. Bangladesh Bank is creating Export Development Fund (EDF) which is a major policy shift towards export development.
What next:
Bangladesh is fraught cotton supply and yarn supply where India is controlling 80 % market share of yarn and major portion of raw cotton. So policy shifts and proposal are required because there is a target of our RMG sector to attain 50 billon mark within 2021. The potentials and concentrated preparation of RMG and strategic support can make a real mileage in this game.
COMMODITY
In to the Madding crowd By Asaduzzaman
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A visit to the most fascinating Iftar market of Bangladesh will not only tickle your nostrils and make your mouth water but By Abhijit also enableAsad you to perceive the super-heightened aspect of consumerism during the holy month of Ramadan.
The go-to place for traditional Iftar delicacies is undoubtedly Chawak Bazar, a whole-seller market situated in the south of Dhaka city. The market with its rich history rose to prominence as the capital during the Moghul period (from the 17th Century). With its many features it has captured people’s attention due to its frivolous gatherings and
delicious items which includes Moglai Kahnaand traditional food dishes. In 1702, Murshid Kuli Khan named the market "Padosha" or "Badshahi Bazar’. If one is looking for a proper mouthwatering Iftar Bonanza then this place is ideal. Once you’re there you can hear the vendors shouting out names of popular Iftar items in their very own code languages to attract your attention. With the restless cooking fires at different stores, the air permeating with the smell of the oil being used to cook the various culinary Iftar delicacies and the vendors with their persistent calls for your attention, it’s an experience that can’t be matched anywhere else in Bangladesh. The signature item at the Iftar Bazar for Chawak is the Boro Baper Polay Khay, a mixture of Chick-peas, minced meat, potatoes, chicken, eggs, thirteen kinds of spices and ghee. This sensational item has created its own niche through word of mouth because of its unique flavors and taste. Other items include giant mutton and chickens roasts, suti kabab, shahi doi bora, mutton and chicken cutlets, kima rolls, kima
IFTAR AT CHAWKBAZAR
The prices have demonstrated a rise of
10% to 30 % compared to that of last year
which has frustrated some of the buyers but the vendors have still managed to maintain the same quality.
porata, hilsha eggs, borhani, matha, halim and different sweet items with the prices of items ranging from Tk 4 to as much as Tk 500. In addition to all that one can find seasonal fruits like mango, jack fruits, water melon, jamrul, guava and so on displayed over there. The prices have demonstrated a rise of 10% to 30 % compared to that of last year which has frustrated some of the buyers but the vendors have still managed to maintain the same quality. Usually the market place starts after 3pm. After speaking to some of the veteran businessmen of the area it was ascertained that their daily sales accounted for Taka 1-1.5 Crore from people buying from the stalls and another Crores worth of sales from outside orders which means a turnover of
around Taka 60 to 70 Crore during the month of Ramadan. This can be attributed towards the fact not only are they selling to people visiting the area but also to outside buyers (from hotels, restaurants, etc.) who place orders in advance. Almost two hundreds vendors are showcasing Iftar items, many of which are being prepared on the spot by renowned baburchis (chefs). Due to this Iftar phenomenon a temporary employment influx is created whereby ten thousand or maybe even more find jobs with an average salary of around Taka 10,000 including the special Eidi (bonus) they receive from customers and employers. When you consider a supply chain consisting of spices, agro products, sweets and so on you can see that it is a business of
over a hundred crores for that one month. Throughout the country, consumption of spices, oils, chickpeas, onions, pulses and dates soar. Taking advantages of that, as the allegation goes,business coteries take the Ramadan as pretext to raise prices and make abnormal profits. Hordes of buyers are always thronged at the makeshift Iftar stalls in and around Dhaka and there have been certain concerns being expressed by people about the food being served. Food adulteration, lack of proper preservation and quality checking, mixing of colors and the re-use of oil has been a major concern when it comes to feed the hungry Dhakaities.has come to the sale of Iftar items. Government Regulatory Bodies, need to take steps to ensure quality control for the well being of the people. Even though there are laws in place like the Pure Food act and the Consumer Rights Protection Act, the lack of coordination between different regulatory bodies means that they’re being implemented properly.
Photographs By Tutul Nesar
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BRANDING
Winning Brands of
2 15
20 facts you need to know about world’s most valuable brands of 2015 based on WPP’s Annual Report
By Anika Taher
About WPP & BrandZ WPP is the world's largest communications services group, employing 179,000 people* working in 3,000 offices in 111 countries. To identify the top 100 most valuable global brands, WPP launched BrandZ which conducted indepth quantitative consumer research with more than 170,000 consumers annually, across more than 30 countries, to assess consumer attitudes about, and relationships with, over 10,000 brands.
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2015 WPP TOP 20 MOST VALUABLE GLOBAL BRANDS & THEIR WORTH 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20.
Apple (Technology) $246,992,000,000 Google (Technology) $173,652,000,000 Microsoft (Technology) $115,500,000,000 IBM (Technology) $93,987,000,000 Visa (Payments) $91,962,000,000 AT&T (Telecom Providers) $89,492,000,000 Verizon (Telecom Providers) $86,009,000,000 Coca-Cola (Soft Drinks) $83,841,000,000 McDonald’s (Fast Food) $81,162,000,000 Marlboro (Tobacco) $80,352,000,000 Tencent (Technology) $76,572,000,000 Facebook (Technology) $71,121,000,000 Alibaba (Retail) $66,375,000,000 Amazon (Retail) $62,292,000,000 China Mobile (Telecom Providers) $59,895,000,000 Wells Fargo (Regional Banks) $59,310,000,000 GE (Conglomerate) $59,272,000,000 UPS (Logistics) $51,798,000,000 Disney (Entertainment) $42,962,000,000 Mastercard (Payments) $40,188,000,000
10 wa ys to b a sus taina uild bl valua ble br e and Innovate and delight Be meaningfully different Stand for a purpose Walk the talk Build and maintain trust Renew and improve the brand experience Rely on consumer insights Think holistically Get noticed Keep changing
WINNING BRANDS OF 2015
1. A decade-long journey It all begun in 2006, when WPP launched BrandZ™ 100 most valuable global brands with brand evaluation methodology of Millward Brown. The decade long journey has been very much rewarding as the people associated with the evaluation observed how over the years Brand Value increased 126 percent to $ 3.3 trillion. 2015 alone witnessed a 14 percent increase in Brand value. To be more specific, Fast food rose 252 percent in brand value; beer, 183 percent; technology, 175 percent; apparel, 139 percent; and telecom providers, 136 percent. Insurance and telecom providers also experienced strong value growth, 21 percent and 17 percent, respectively. Two categories declined – global banks and luxury – and apparel remained even year-on-year.
2. Trying times, Going places The decade has seen its fair share of ups and downs. Especially financial meltdowns have affected brands big time. Instead of that brands thrive surprisingly, thanks to technology, the ubiquitous disruptor for causing the total paradigm shift. Besides, consumer awareness is increased by manifold which enabled brands to be scrutinized more closely based topics like sustainability and
compliance.
3. Brand, Difference and Trust BrandZ™10 years of evaluation data identified three factors which are pivotal behind the success of a any brand. First of all, it has to have clear and compelling brand proposition. Standing out from the rest in a meaningful way will further boost the strength of a brand where as ensuring consumers’ trust is also important.
4. The Chinese are coming Ten years ago only one Chinese brand ranked in the BrandZ™ Global Top 100 – China Mobile, a state-owned telecoms provider. Over the last decade, the 14 ranked Chinese brands showed total $432.4 billion in Brand Value, a 1,004 percent increase. So far these brands have built value mostly in China. But they’ll be going global in the coming decade. The Chinese e-commerce brand Alibaba entered the BrandZ™ Top 100 for the first time, rising immediately to first place in the retail category, following its record breaking IPO, which raised $25 billion on the New York Stock Exchange.
invested in the 2006 would be worth $130 today based on the MSCI World Index growth rate, and $163 if it grew at the same pace as the S&P 500. That $100 invested in the BrandZ™ Strong Brand Portfolio would more than double in value to $203. This clearly shows BrandZ portfolio outperforming S&P 500 Index and the MSCI World Index.
and compelling core proposition, a distinctive brand identity, and great advertising. Brands that scored highly on all these criteria over the last 10 years experienced brand value growth on average of 168 percent. From this, we can broil down to the fact that high caliber brand consultancy is essential for building brand value and strength.
6. Brands becoming more powerful
8. How to be different? Be the Trend-setter
Brand Power is the BrandZ ™ measure of one aspect of brand equity, a consumer’s predisposition to purchase a particular brand. Brand Power helps sustain and grow Brand Value and profitability. Brands entering the Global Top 100 since 2006 score 176 in Brand Power, on average. The average score of brands that dropped from the ranking since 2006 is 135. 135 is a high score, but not high enough to remain in the increasingly competitive BrandZ™ Global Top 100 ranking with valuable newcomer brands that effectively build Salience and Meaningful Difference, the key components of Brand Power.
Innovation enables a brand to become a leader in its field. It is critical but is of utmost importance. In every aspect, starting from manufacturing to offers never-seen-before experiences to pricing to communicating, brands should try something innovative that will help it stand out amongst its contemporaries.
5. Payback Time
7. Advertise efficiently
The survey proves that valuable brands deliver superior shareholder returns. For example, In concrete terms, $100
Superior Brand Value and greatest brand value growth occur when brands deliver the full combination of a unique
9. Looking for premium? Build meaningful difference It is important to take steps that will deepen the relationship of your brand with potential buyers. To do so, identifying meaningful and salient difference is crucial. Brand must deliver on promise and through effective marketing it can successfully disseminate the positive aspects of itself to ensure premium.
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BRANDING
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WINNING BRANDS OF 2015
10. Love wins at any cost How to measure if a brand is loved or not? Look at the emotional affinity: how much honest, warm and friendly is the brand will help identify how much loved it is. Nevertheless, great performance is the most important thing for a brand to grow at a faster pace.
11. Embrace digital platform According to Matthew Mee, CSO, MediaCom, “Digital will soon comprise half of media spending.� The new active ingredient for each brand is data, which can tell stories or allow new stories to be discovered. To ensure transparency, an aid to become trustworthy to consumers, brands need to know how to make the best use of data, especially digital data. Mobiles emerging as a control center of all sorts of communication, marketers should try to ensure their digital presence through mobile phones.
12. A special note for tech-brands What it needs to become a tech brand is the most important question for those who would want to venture into that realm. Ask yourself if you are a retail brand that is making innovative use of technology or a tech brand providing retail service. Broadly there are three
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BRANDING
After Apple introduced its iPhone 6, the brand reported quarterly earnings of over $18 billion, the highest corporate quarterly profit in history for a public company, which quieted most critics who had questioned the sustained brand power of Apple.
14. Microsoft & IBM regained position 15. Three mantras of Success To ensure success, brand should thinks less about ownership and more about enabling consumer value. Being nimble is a
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$912.7bn
$68.7bn $120.6bn
$303.0bn
2006 $39.2bn
16. Disruption is the new normal Disruption is a bane for stability but it pays back in a different way. That is it ushers innovation and shows new path to brands to widen its offering basket and with proper integration, brands can lure customers while retaining the loyal ones without being upset.
$2,164.2bn
2015
+137%
+23%
+ 1,004%
$186.9bn
$432.4bn North America Continental Europe
Source: BrandZ™ / Millward Brown
Gabbana are just some of the brands that have felt the pain of social media.
17. Honesty is still 18. How to build the best policy a fast food The 2014 survey from the brand? Reputation Institute found that only 15 percent of people trusted what companies communicated in their ads, and 43 percent were unsure if goods and services were of a high quality. When trust disintegrates, only the stripped back naked truth will convince us to believe the headlines, slogans and brand promises they make. The pervasiveness of social media has pressured previously trusted brands to own up to their misdemeanors. No one would argue that the power of social media has helped start-ups to build brands overnight. Equally, it can expose untruths in nano-seconds and destroy brands that waver from the truth. Ryanair, Domino’s Pizza, Nestlé, FedEx, KFC, Chrysler, McDonald’s, Dolce &
$373.8bn $112.3bn
+55%
13. Apple of the eye
ever-changing digital space is important. Also, Enabling integration with the widest range of services is crucial.
+64%
categories of tech brands: first group provides infrastructural support in the field of technology, Companies like IBM, HPs belong to this category. The second group has device players who provide customer electronics. Samsung, Apple, Amazon fall into this category. The third one is data driven company. Facebook, twitter, google etc. belong to this group. For a new tech company, it is important to be aware about its technological identity which will enable it to focus on product and service and find our meaningful peer group and possible collaboration with them.
Fast food companies need well-driven machine run factories ; but that is not enough. Adding a personal touch will make the brand more meaningful. At the same time, delivery on promise is significant. Operation has to be renewed from time to time because good practices will easily be copied by competitors. Last but not least: renewing and improving brand experience will helps companies.
19. Connect on personal level In its broadest definition, personalization means individuality. That doesn’t have to mean embossed initials. In fact, consumers develop an identity by associating themselves with the brands that
UK China Other Asia/Australia
speak to them and say something about their aspirational, myriad selves. The implication for brands is simple: be clear on who you are and whom you are for, rather than merely playing back your consumer.
20. E-commerce holds the key to success Alibaba and Amazon have no physical stores but surpassed Walmart, which operates over 10,000 stores worldwide, and ranks third in the Retail Top 20. This irony illustrates the impact of e-commerce on the radical transformation and rationalization of retail. As retail evolves, successful retail brands will remain what they’ve always been – trusted locations where consumers can access experiences, products and services they want or desire to own – and in the future, may want or desire to rent or share.
LEADERSHIP
Blue Ocean S t r at egy Leadership distributed across different tiers of an organization to boost overall productivity by ensuring more employee engagement By Wahid T. Khan
In 1979, Canadian Guy Laliberté decided he had enough. He had recently quit his work at a hydroelectric power station; this was right after he had quit college and toured Europe basking and performing folk music. Together with two friends and a platoon of performing artists, he created a performing troupe in Quebec that hobbled into popularity and moderate financial success four years later. Then, in 1984, on the 450th discovery of Canada, the government of Quebec awarded Laliberté’s troupe a grant to tour and incorporate new acts. The grant was intended to support a yearlong project.
Laliberté’s “project” quickly became Canada’s largest cultural export: Cirque du Soleil.
BLUE OCEAN STRATEG
Conventional leadership practices
The Mind Map of Blue Ocean Leadership Personal Qualities & Behavioral Styles
Blue ocean leadership practices
Employee disengagement: Global average (87%) America (70%) China (94%) Germany (85%) Korea (88%)
Acts & Activities
Releasing the ocean of untapped talent and energy of employees
Senior Management Leadership Profile
Focus on Day to Day Operations Delegate and Chart the Company’s Future
Generic Connected to Market Reality
Focus on Executives
KEY DIFFERENCES FROM CONVENTIONAL LEADERSHIP APPROACHES
B LUE O CEAN L EADERSHIP
Control & Play Safe
CHANGE
Middle Management Leadership Profile
Focus Across All Management Levels
Please the Boss
PROCESS
Frontline Management Leadership Profile
Invest Extra Time for Leadership Practices Pursue High Impact Leadership Practices while Conserving Time
Top/ Senior management engages employees through a controlled process for a leap in leadership performance
The systematic 4-step process driven by visual tools is deployed to effectively depersonalise & synthesise employees’ input on leadership
leading cause for employee disengagement. As is the case with companies, managers spend the majority of their time within the red oceans of micro-managing and routine activities. This deprives management from valuable time it would have been better off expending in discovering new opportunities on the horizon. Blue ocean leadership, focuses on what acts and activities leaders need to undertake to boost their teams’ motivation levels and results, not on who the leaders need to be. It is markedly easier to change people’s acts and activities than their values, qualities, and behavioral traits. Of course, altering a leader’s activities is not a complete solution, and having the right values, qualities, and behavioral traits matters. But activities are something that any individual can change, given the right feedback and guidance Most leadership programs focus on executives and their potential for impact now and in the future. But the key to a successful organization is having empowered leaders at every level, because outstanding organizational performance often comes down to the motivation and actions of middle and frontline leaders, who are in closer to the market. Blue ocean leadership is designed to be applied across the three distinct management levels: top, middle, and frontline. It calls for profiles for leaders that are
Liberate, Coach, and Empower
Cut Through to Serve Customers
Through the collective wisdom & action, high performance is achieved fast at low cost
Infographics from knowledge.insead.edu
How did Cirque du Soleil manage this success in an industry as antiquated and controversial as the circus? W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne, professors at INSEAD, believe they have the answer. They believe Cirque effectively “reinvented” the circus: by breaking from the confining traditions of the circus industry established by stalwarts such as Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey and incorporating modern theater, opera and ballet elements into their acts, Cirque was able to increase the value of its entertainment experience. The result of these innovations was that Cirque did not have to woo and steal customers from the other two circus mainstays; it attracted newcomers and consequently increased revenue by a factor of 22. Professors Kim and Mauborgne place Cirque du Soleil amongst 149 other success stories from thirty industries that they have studied to posit that companies are only successful when they engage in “Blue Ocean” strategy and create new uncontested market spaces. The strategy involves distinguishing between “red oceans”- the known competitive market space today- and “blue oceans”, which is untainted market space that provides ample opportunity for growth and profit for an industry. Demand is created in blue oceans, rather than fought over. The premise is ostensibly simple: for a company to succeed, it needs to stop quibbling over existing territory and instead chart undiscovered ones. Unfortunately, for most businesses this is easier said than done- bureaucratic leadership and myopic goals are major hindrances for those that look to innovate and invent. Kim and Mauborgne extended their strategy further to improve corporate leadership as well. In the March 2014 issue of Harvard Business Review, they proposed an extension of Blue Ocean as a solution to poor corporate leadership that is often cited as the
tailored to the very different tasks, degrees of power, and environments you find at each level. This will significantly enhance performances across the organization. When people value your leadership practices, they in effect buy your leadership and are inspired to excel and act with commitment. But when employees don’t buy your leadership, they disengage, becoming noncustomers of your leadership.
To put Blue Ocean Leadership into practice you need to follow four steps: 1. 2. 3. 4.
See your leadership reality. Develop alternative Leadership Profiles. Select to-be Leadership Profiles. Institutionalize new leadership practices.
Once you start thinking about leadership in this way, we saw that the concepts and frameworks we were developing to create new demand in the field of strategy could be adapted to help leaders convert disengaged employees into engaged ones. Here is where people like Laliberté shine: while he has been involved in the major annual performances of Cirque du Soleil since its inception, he has been able to identify opportunities for the company to grow and scout talent that can add value to the final product which has lead to his prolonged success.
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STRATEGY
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SPECIAL REPORT
Leather Industry:
Aspiring to be the Next RMG Crossing the record $1 billion mark in export helped the leather industry dream big. Nevertheless, the relocation issue should be given high priority for the industry to flourish
Photography by Din M Shibly at Austan Ltd.
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T
By Sushmita Saha The leather industry of Bangladesh witnessed a robust growth by crossing the record $1billion mark in export in FY 2013-14. According to Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), the total export for the FY 2013-14 amounts to be an outstanding $1.29 billion, up 32.12 percent year-on-year. The stunning performance of this industry is well reflected
in the export amount which is leading the market analysts to reckon leather industry as a much potential realm of export after Readymade Garments (RMG). The industry has already bagged $662.88 million, up 6.85 percent year-on-year by exporting leather goods and non-leather footwear in July-December last year, according to EPB. The emergence of leather industry in Bangladesh dates back to 1940 when the first tannery was set up at Narayanganj, although, it started to flourish from 1990 and maintained an average growth of 15%. The real worth of this industry has been established with the traversing of $1 billion export boundary. The astounding achievement of this industry is beholden to a handful of internal and external grounds. Where enormous supply of hides (finished and semi-finished leather), cost competitive base, tariff free access are the internal grounds, buyers across the globe diverting their focus from dominant China due to a spike in their production costs by 30-50 percent lately. China, the unequivocal front runner in footwear manufacturing, has been ruling over the global leather demand by producing $90 billion of footwear and $35 billion of leather goods which account for 65 percent and 35 percent of global demand respectively. Since, labor costs are rising and their salaries will be increasing by 13 percent annually as decided by the Chinese government in their “12th Five Year Plan� to stimulate their domestic power, China has lost its cost-competitive base and potential buyers as well. The leather industry in Bangladesh comprises of three sectors: Hides, Footwear and Leather goods (bags, accessories etc.) In the last fiscal year, an amount of $550.11 was rolled in the footwear sector which is 31.19 percent higher than that of FY 2012-13 thanks to the local companies Apex-Adelchi Footwear Limited, Jennys Shoes, Bay Footwear, Leatherex Footwear, Landmark Footwear etc. and the
HUGE PROSPECT OF LEATHER FOOTWEARS
foreign investors (Picard, Bata and other Chinese investors). The 11th issue of Keystone Quarterly Review puts a great emphasis on establishing international standard training and research facilities such as a Leather Research Institute and Footwear Development & Design Institute and hire highly experienced and trained instructors and consultants to ensure the growth of this sector. Although footwear and leather goods have demonstrated good spirits, hides could not run the good race. It was accountable for $505.54 worth of export, up 26.47 percent year-on-year which is disappointingly much below than that of other two sectors. This downward move is mainly on account of not following the compliance issue by the tanneries of
Hazaribag. Hazaribag, the tannery hub of leather industry has been subject to strong international condemnation for not abiding by environment compliance issue. It was positioned as one of the most polluted places on earth. According to the magazine, the tanneries dump 22,000 cubic liters of toxic waste each day, including the cancer-causing toxin into the capital’s lifeline Buriganga river. Human Rights Watch termed the tannery hub as ‘toxic tanneries’ & ‘an enforcement-free zone’ in its 2012 report and chastised the tannery industry for poor occupational health and safety conditions, violation of labor safety, involvement in hazardous child labor and absence of proper monitoring and enforcing.
The repercussion is clearly visible in the disappointing export figures of hides. To shake off the tag of “Toxic Tanneries” on the forehead of tannery industry, the Ministry of Industries has allocated 200-acres of leather estate at Savar to 155 tannery owners through Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation (BSCIC) for relocation of tanneries from Hazaribag to Savar. The move to shift to Savar started in 2003, however, the ministry of industries has already missed the fifth deadline which was on June 2015 because the tannery owners are dragging their feet on the relocation issue. Amongst 155, 127 tanneries have submitted their factory layout plans to BSCIC and 85 got approval. According to Shaheen Ahmed of the Bangladesh Tanneries Association (BTA), the tanners will have to invest 6000 Cr. in order to relocate the factories, establish new plants and start commercial production. To give the tanners some cost relief, the government should consider providing them with soft loans for relocation purpose, as suggested by M Abu Taher, chairman of Bangladesh Finished Leather, Leathergoods and Footwear Exporters' Association. Some analysts, however, consider that the government has already played their part of role by allotting the plots at subsidized rate, giving out gas and electricity connection and bearing the cost of CETP construction; now the tannery
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VACATION ECONOMY
owners will have to play their part. Many international companies are cancelling their orders on account of absence of Central Effluent Treatment Plant (CETP) in Hazaribag. At a roundtable ‘Relocation of tanneries: Progress and Prospects’, the Managing Director of a local company informed that a large European company recently withdrew orders for 2.5-3 million square feet of finished leather from a local leather company mainly due to absence of CETP. The Chinese Joint Venture JLEPCL-DCL was expected to install CETP by the latest deadline of 1st July 2015 at a cost of Tk 477.46 crore at the Savar Leather Industrial Park. However, the report of Human Rights Watch conveyed that the problematic issues associated with the tannery industry cannot simply solved by a technical fix, proper monitoring and enforcement is cardinal. To address proper monitoring and enforcement, the government has to take stern actions against any entity violating environment laws. This is also a reason China became the global leather export leader; they have implemented strict enforcement of environment laws. In 2014, six Chinese companies were fined $26m for discharging tens of thousands of tonnes of waste chemicals into rivers. Not only that, the Supreme People’s Court of China has granted public interest groups more power to sue those that break environmental protection laws. The leather industry is eyeing for a $5 billion export in the next decade. The teeming potential of the industry makes the target attainable indeed but not at the cost of violating environment laws. Currently, the industry has a manpower of 8,50,000 and it is the tannery owners’ duty to protect the interest of their workers. On the government’s part, it has to play a major role to fortify the current lax enforcement to allure more international brands. After all, the goal is to take the “Made in Bangladesh” tag to every nook and cranny of the world.
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LIVE IN THE MOMENT
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Graphs & Charts by Adnan Nafis, BGCCI
SPECIAL REPORT
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EXPERT OPINIONS ON LEATHER INDUSTRY
Adnan Nafis
Acting Head, Bangladesh German Chamber of Commerce & Industry (BGCCI)
In leather industry, most of the top brands already work with Bangladesh and there are willing ones. So, Bangladesh can definitely achieve the figures anticipated by the industry circle, however, some rules are to be followed immediately.
State the potentials of the leather industry. What are the competitive edges of Bangladesh over the other leading countries?
Bangladesh is the second largest in the Ready-made Garment (RMG) sector. On the other hand, the leather industry has every potential to grow and is growing rapidly. The greatest advantage of Bangladesh is the huge youth work- force in such a context where almost all other countries have an aging work-force. Unlimited supply of talented work force is definitely an advantage for Bangladesh. The products we are offering belong to the bottom of the pyramid, there have been improvement in the
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SPECIAL REPORT
What are the bottlenecks?
Q $74
Bangladesh has imported $74 million in the last fiscal year to meet the export demand.
middle tier but it’s basic. China was the biggest competitor but they have lost their competitiveness on account of increase is costs. China cannot afford the basic products now. The statistics reveals that China’s export has been reduced by 5.29% in 2012 and 7.45% in 2014. So, there has been a vacuum which Bangladesh can fill up. As the RMG has done, leather will do too but we need to set the environment compliance issue right at our earliest convenience. Bangladesh is one of the largest leather producing country in this world because of our livestock. Vietnam is a big player in the global market but they import it and make it. Here we have leather supply, we process it and export; so our value addition is high.
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Bangladesh always got the attention because of the unprocessed and untreated chemicals getting dumped at the river Buriganga by the tanneries of Hazaribag. We got a harsh treatment by Time magazine which labeled Hazaribag as ‘hell’ and ranking it at number five where Chernobyl is ranked number three. This is greatest hindrance of this industry for which the international brands are not willing to work with us. RMG has abandoned child labor but leather industry is still into it which is earning a bad name for this industry. The problem is not with finished goods. Skill development is another issue for this industry. We don’t have too many technical centers, and those we have are not providing the required skill. We have dearth of skilled trainers. We don’t have leather fashion designers. These issues should be addressed in no time.
What kind of reforms should be undertaken to address the issue?
The government has done it’s part. Now the private sector has to come up and conduct the relocation part because end of the day, they are violating and destroying the environment. Last year, we have carried out a big project for GIZ and I interviewed several brands. When I asked them if they are sourcing from Bangladesh , they replied in negative and informed that they are waiting for the relocation from Hazaribag because it does not have the Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) and causing environmental hazard. The moment the relocation part is completed and Savar is active, they are ready to work with Bangladesh. Moreover, most of the top brands already work with Bangladesh and there are willing ones. So, Bangladesh can definitely achieve the figures anticipated by the industry circle, however, some rules
are to be followed immediately. I think the collapse of Rana Plaza is the best example ahead of us of the consequences of not following the compliance issue. From the data, the proportion of export of processed leather has been decreased radically because of the tanneries whereas export of Footwear has been increase commendably because we have state-of –the-art companies like Apex, Jennys shoes, Bay footwear are there which have the international certifications and follow compliance. However, the whole sector has to come on board. Due to this issue, Bangladesh has imported $74 million in the last fiscal year to meet the export demand. If the trend continues, Bangladesh will lose out on value addition in exports. Another aspect I would like to add is, when I visited a leather exhibition this year in Germany, not too many Bangladeshi exhibitors were there. There were almost 300 Chinese buying houses who were sourcing . If we don’t participate in these international trade fairs, we will miss out on great opportunities. We won’t get the proper pricing. Attending the fairs will help them to know where they are and what are the contemporaries are doing. I understand it takes a lot of money but the results will cover the costs.
What kind government supports the leather industry requires?
Government support is much needed. The government should redesign the support they are giving. It has an incentive for the value addition which is not encouraging for the main contributors, to my opinion. For example, the Central Bank has given incentive to the good borrowers. This kind of initiative is really desired. The companies should be rewarded who are creating more value or doing more environment complaint business. It will create a benchmark and work as an incentive for others to abide by the law.
HUGE PROSPECT OF LEATHER FOOTWEARS
“A robust quality drive with appropriate testing of the leather & leather goods can upkeep this sector” Dr. Karthik N.D
Director, Intertek Bangladesh
EXPERT OPINION ON LEATHER INDUSTRY
Enabling the Leather & Footwear Industry of Bangladesh Intertek is a renowned name in quality solution serving a wide range of industries. What intrigues the company to explore the opportunities in the leather sector?
According to the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB), Bangladesh earned $ 1.29 billion from exports of leather, leather goods and footwear in the 2013-14 fiscal. Footwear alone fetched $550 million in foreign exchange of the leather sector’s total export earnings. Compound annual growth for the preceding five years was over 25 percent, and there are early signs that the industry is moving towards higher value-added production,
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more diversified export markets, and innovative new products. A robust quality drive with appropriate testing of the leather & leather goods can upkeep this sector. Improving the standards of this sector is a priority for our country as it is a major source of foreign exchange earnings. To standardize the efforts and the need of quality upgradation of the fast paced Leather-goods and Footwear industry, Intertek invested in building the largest Softlines lab in South Asia in December 2014, catering to all the needs and the growing demand of the industry.
What are the most striking features of the laboratory for ensuring quality leather goods?
This is the first dedicated and accredited (ISO 17025:2005 ) leather and footwear lab in Bangladesh to protect the quality standards of our leather sector. We are capable of conducting all Chemical tests requirements of leather & footwear including Chromium VI, Formaldehyde, Lead content, Phthalates, Hazardous Dyestuff, PCP etc. All these features ensure the quality of leather goods assured from our lab service.
This lab being part of the largest softlines lab in this region, gives added advantage of offering “complete” solution of the testing requirements including other fabric, metal and non-metal accessories present in a footwear product. In addition, we offer waste water testing facility also for tanneries & shoe manufacturing facilities to have a check on their environmental compliance. The lab was established with a team of international experts and has the state-of-the-art installations & instruments, from SATRA Technology UK. All our Lab staffs are well trained & having relevant educational background including Leather & Footwear Engineering. The lab has already been approved by major retailers and brands form Germany, USA, UK, France etc which are the prominent brands sourcing footwear from Bangladesh.
What's your take on the current status of our leather good products? How can we ensure more quality?
Bangladeshi footwear products have already established a “niche” position in the global product in terms of quality. Competitive prices and improved quality have attracted an increasing number of importers from Asia and Europe. Almost all of the country’s leather production, 80 percent, is exported. However, the proportion of contribution is very less compared to other countries as well as considering the potential we have in our country. In this view, we need to take the industry to the next higher level both in terms of product range, lead times & quality. To support gaining pace, we have entered into a synergistic agreement with Leather-goods & Footwear Manufacturers & Exporters Association of Bangladesh (LFMEAB) where all the Leathergoods and footwear will be tested and approved from our lab. This is a huge step that will help
INTERTEK Photography by Din M Shibly at Intertek Bangladesh Laboratory
this sector of our country to continuously improve the quality. Once the lab is established, we are taking steps to create awareness on the service availability, global technical & regulatory requirements of the products being exported, highlighting the importance of “proactive” approach on meeting such requirements & beyond, which are all vital for the improvement of quality of goods being exported from Bangladesh.
How cost effective is your service?
Intertek offers the most competitive service for worldwide as well as in Bangladesh. By establishing a state-of-the-art lab in Bangladesh, the manufacturers and exporters have the scope to test all their products in Bangladesh, which saves them huge cost on courier and transportation charges to other countries, and more importantly, reduces huge lead time in this process by more than 60% which also yields huge cost saving. Additionally we offer a range of value added services providing valuable insights on risk management and technical troubleshooting, through which manufactures can be well aware of key aspects and avoid product failures and ensure “right first time”
production which will yield exponential cost savings. Briefly inform us about other services provided by Intertek. Intertek is a leading quality solutions provider to industries worldwide. From auditing and inspection, to testing, training, advisory, quality assurance and certification, Intertek adds value for its customers by helping improve the quality and safety of their products, assets and processes and also ensures quality product to customer’s customer. With our proficient network, Intertek supports by helping customers to meet end
users’ expectations for safety, sustainability, performance, integrity and desirability. We offer several services like: textile testing, Eco testing (Analytical & Chemical), Leather and footwear testing, water quality testing, Inspection, Supplier management, Workplace condition assessment, Fire safety audit, Electrical safety assessment, Training, Environmental management, Quality Management, Occupational health and safety, Food safety, Energy audit, Mill Qualification program, Supplier Qualification program, Food and agricultural services, Cargo and analytical assessment, Government and trade services, Calibration services, Hardlines solutions, Building product safety etc. Intertek Bangladesh gives its customers the confidence that they are developing, producing and marketing their products or services in the most effective way. They rely on Intertek and Intertek analyze their needs, help them to achieve quick delivery times to market, and protect them at all times against risk.
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COVER STORY
Escaping
How a vacation helps you, your job and the progress of the national economy By Tasnuva Khan
M “When all else fails, take a vacation,” Betty Williams famously declared once – and you have to believe her. She’s a Nobel Laureate; clearly, she knows what she’s talking about.
Monday morning blues (or more appropriately in Bangladesh, Sunday morning blues) are more common than we would like to admit. It happens because the idea of starting another dreary work-week at our regular dead end job fills us with tiredness, lack of motivation and a dreaded sense of resigned acceptance that work is unavoidable. We look forward to weekends because we think it’ll be a break from this monotony but weekends too become a part of the endless routine, and fail to rejuvenate us from our Walking Dead state to someone peppier, like Psy. This is why taking some time off to escape the cycle in the form of a vacation is essential.
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VACATION ECONOMY
Personal therapy
Chronic stress often develops as a result of our weekly working routines. A change of scene, whether it is to a destination one has never been to before, or a tried and tested favorite spot, promotes well being, personal development and an opportunity for new experiences. This excitement not just brings a peace of mind to self but also improves relationships with the family – after all, every employed person has at some point in their life argued with their spouses about lack of time for each other, or has had their children beg to “buy an hour of mommy or daddy’s time”. Taking a vacation allows individuals to spend quality time with those who matter. Shared experiences and meaningful time spent together isolated from the regularities of life such as job or schoolwork fosters growing and enduring connections. Some studies have shown that downtime may have more
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tangible health benefits such as decreased risks of heart disease – USA’s National Institute of Health’s Heart, Lung, and Blood Institutes discovered that amongst 12,000 men known to have high risks of heart disease, those who over the nine year period took annual vacations were 21% less likely to die of coronary reasons. Another study by Marshfield Clinic, amongst rural Wisconsin, showed that women who vacationed less than once every two years were far more likely to suffer from depression than those who took at least two trips every year. While no official study has been done regarding family relationships, just look around. Have you not noticed that families that tour together more often tend to be happier than those who don’t?
Increased productivity
Seriously, just beat those Monday morning blues. A vacation will prevent you from being stuck in your endlessly mundane routine by providing you with some excitement. There is a strong correlation between countries that have long vacations and thei GDP, competitiveness, and unemployment rates. Finland has, on average, 40 days of the year reserved for vacations and ranks 6th on the Global Competitiveness Ranking. Denmark, at 36 days, ranks 3rd, whereas in Bangladesh, the picture is wholly different. While exact statistics are not available online employees in Bangladesh do not spend as much time on vacations, and when they do they are often working on the go.
Because vacations are a means to recharge, increased productivity naturally follows. Research by Alertness Solutions has shown that once employees return from a vacation performance can increase by as much as 80%, and reaction times increases by 40%. By being away from stressors, recreation can “recreate” us. While in an unfamiliar place the brain naturally observes more in order to take better feel the novelty of the situation. Returning vacationers are able to retain this skill, which makes them, better suited to continue their work. They are more able to “live in the moment”. No longer is it a dreary, dead end job but a challenge they can dive into with renewed vigor. The average American is allowed 14 days off work to take a break but only uses 12 of those days while the average French person takes up more than twice that time. While the perception is that the American work ethic is stronger than the French, it actually makes more sense to follow the French model. “Ergonomics” is the study of people’s efficiency at the workplace, and the Cornell University Ergonomics Research Laboratory in 1999 published that those at Wall Street who use softwares to remind them to sit back and relax while working at the computer actually become 13% more efficient right after their break. While it is certainly true that internet misuse has cost American companies around $178 billion in lost productivity, more academic studies have found that users who spend 20% of their time in the workplace looking at silly cat videos on the internet are 9% more productive than those who refrain from going online altogether. Within the European Union Greeks work, on average, 2,017 hours per year with only two weeks off while Germans take six weeks off and work only 1,408 hours a year. Greece is a modern dystopia right now with 20% unemployment rate while Germany remains the powerhouse of Europe with only 6.8% of its people unemployed. The reason for this is productivity: Germany is the eighth most productive country in the world and their long, paid vacations allow for its people to work hard as well as holiday hard. The Netherlands takes it a step further by having very short lunch breaks but ending the work day early so everyone can party even harder. It all boils down to allowing your body to rest and recover through a change of scenery.
LIVE IN THE MOMENT
National Economy
The smog and pollution of Dhaka makes it difficult to believe that there is such a thing as a pleasant vacation from work or school. The World Trade Tourism Council (WTTC) begs to differ. In 2013, the Council estimated that the travel and tourism industry generates 1.2 million jobs within the economy and that it contributes to 1.8 percent of the country’s GDP. The WTTC also further adds that this number is only to increase- as by 2023, the industry will support 4.2 percent of growth and an addition 2 million jobs. The government realizes this as well: the BBC reported in 2012 that the Tourism Board had begun initiating development projects
in Cox’s Bazar and other coastal parts of the country to rival traditional beach destinations like Thailand and generate 5 billion dollars in revenue. We need to understand the motivations of tourists to market Bangladesh effectively. Professors Rizwan Hassan, Mahruf Ullah and Shahnur Azad Chowdhury, at the Islamic International University, Chittagong report that over 70 percent of tourists come to Bangladesh on business and/or other official purposes. The statistic aligns neatly with the primary contributor of the country’s growth - the readymade garments sector (RMG). Buyers and representatives from foreign companies make regular trips to the country’s various export processing zones for business. However, this has to change. India and Sri Lanka, Bangladesh’s more tourist-friendly regional neighbors, dominate the region in non-business tourism. What are the things holding back the Bangladesh tourism economy? Some believe is the quality of human resources in the local tourism economy. Dr. Mohammad Shamsuddoha, a professor of Marketing at the University of Chittagong writes in Revista de Turism that, “it is due to the low literacy rate of the general population that tourists cannot communicate adequately.” He believes that in recent years the government and other actors have taken various initiatives in presenting a positive image of Bangladesh and have been promoting the tourism aspects of the country. However, a lack of trained professionals has made the quality of service nationwide inconsistent for travelers and this needs to change. Professor
Shamsuddoha believes tackling the paucity of professional development programs at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels in hospitality as a long-term solution. In the short-to-mid term, however, he suggests that training personnel with some prior experience on an “emergency basis” can serve the immediate needs of the Bangladeshi tourism economy. Bangladesh clearly has work cut for itself as it needs to grow in many potential industries. The “Beautiful Bangladesh” campaign launched by the Tourism Board and Parjatan Corporation needs to involve private travel companies because they stand to gain from this too. Bangladesh is a founding member of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO); there are technical services available to member countries from the Organization that the country can leverage. Let’s make sure we can share the sunshine of our beaches to those who have none.
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VACATION ECONOMY
TRAVEL WITH A BANKING BOOST
Banks are offering a lot to lure the vacation goers. Here is an account of some of those offers.
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By Wasif Shams Everyone has their own personal traveling dreams but most of us are usually held back from fulfilling them because of our mundane working routines. Hence, why not take a breather (make that a weeklong breather) from your desk job and make your holiday dream a reality? With all the big Banks out there with their numerous travelling offers, how can one not be tempted into leaving their daily working woes behind to enjoy some time on a sunny beach, or go trekking through a tropical rainforest? If you are a City Bank Corporate Card Holder you can enjoy the Amex Lounge facilities at the Hazrat Shah Jalal International Airport. Regardless of the airlines and class of travel you get access to numerous facilities like complimentary hot food and drinks served by Hotel Sheraton Dhaka, Internet access, Widescreen TVs and WiFi connections and so on. Apart from this, with an Amex Card in your hands you get to experience room rent and dining discounts at numerous luxurious locations. Get room rent discounts up to 30% at The Palace Resort & Spa, 12% dining savings at the Cozy Sizzlers at the Long Beach Hotel, 35% to 45% room rent discounts at Sea Gull Hotels
Ltd, and 50% room rent savings at the Hotel Agrabad, just to name a few of their recent offers. If you prefer to do your banking with Eastern Bank Limited then you can enjoy airport pick-up and drop-off services at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport (for international travel only) if you avail their Priority Banking Services. Once there, relax at the five star hospitality of their Sky Lounge at the airport which features gourmet cuisines from The Westin Dhaka, WiFi internet, HD TVs, newspapers, magazines, flight information displays and etc. If you’re traveling by Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. and its subsidiary Hong Kong Dragon Airlines Limited then you can even get 3% to 9% discounts (depending on which class you prefer) and special luggage allowances. A lot of people consider carrying cash a burden when going on trips in which case BRAC Bank has the perfect solution with their BRAC Bank Travel Prepaid Card. You can now enjoy convenient and safe access to your money during your travels and since this is a Prepaid Card, any individuals (21 years and above) having no relationship with Brac Bank can also enjoy its benefits. One can withdraw cash from any VISA accepted ATMs or do the shopping across the world. With a nominal issuance fee of BDT 500+15% VAT, and a limit of up to USD 5000 for SAARC and USD 7000 for non SAARC countries, as per Personal Travel Quota enjoy this completely interest free card. All that’s required is a valid passport, a photograph and for you to fill up the application form. Standard Chartered Bank also have their very own Prepaid Visa Travel Card (denominated in US Dollars) that gives you a secured and hassle-free travel experience as well. The Travel Card can be used to withdraw cash at over 850,000 Visa ATMs worldwide. You will be provided a PIN with your Card, which you can use to draw cash anywhere in the world in the local currency of the country where you are traveling. If you’re a VISA Signature Credit Card holder than enjoy your waiting hours at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka by using the comfort of the Balaka Lounge. Other offers include 20% to 33% room rate discounts at DuSai Resort & Spa, 55% room rate and 50% dining discounts at the Grand Sultan Tea Resort, 40 to 50% room discounts at the Ocean Paradise Hotel and so on.
TOURISM
On the right track By Faria Ahmed
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With proper policy change and implementation, Bangladesh’s tourism is expected to grow in coming years
In 2014, the ‘Travel & Tourism’ industry globally provided 277 million jobs as stated in a report issued by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC). For the past few decades, the WTTC has quantified the economic impacts of travel and tourism and its 2015 report sheds light on the branches
of the economy that benefit from this trillion dollar tourism industry in a total of 184 countries worldwide. While Bangladesh still hasn’t reached the top tier, the report hints at a strengthening tourism industry for Bangladesh if the policies catch on in the right direction.
WTTC
Different components of Travel & Tourism
In the last year alone, the travel and tourism industry generated over USD 7.6 trillion which makes up about 10% of the global GDP. These statistics alone indicates great potential for growth for regions that can capitalize on the increasing demand. As for Bangladesh, this industry has directly contributed a humble 1.9% of total GDP but the silver lining remains in the predicted rise by 5.9% in 2015 and 6.1% pa from 2015-2025. More importantly, in a nation where unemployment still remains a cause for concern, this industry directly supported 903,500 jobs and made a holistic contribution of 1,984,000 jobs in the country. A gradual increase is predicted for almost all categories that are tied to the tourism industry of this recently declared lower-middle income country. In recent years, a good portion of tourists have been inclined to try out the more ‘exotic’ parts of the world and an immense exposure has been seen in places like Bali and Phuket among other Asian Total Contribution of Travel & Tourism to GDP
Bangladesh Travel & Tourism's Contribution to GDP: Business vs Leisure, 2014
Business spending
Leisure spending
22.0%
78.0% Bangladesh
Travel & Tourism's Contribution to GDP: Domestic vs Foreign, 2014
Domestic spending
Foreign visitor spending
97.9%
2.1% Bangladesh
Breakdown of Travel & Tourism's Total Contribution to GDP, 2014
a c
Indirect
Induced
Direct
Indirect is the sum of: (a) Supply chain 23.3% (b) Investment 6.1% (c) Government collective 2.3%
b
31.7%
21.1%
47.2%
All values are in constant 2014 prices & exchange rates
Breakdown of Travel & Tourism's Total Contribution to GDP and Employment 2014 GDP (2014 BDTbn)
2014 2014BDTbn BDTbn 1,400
132
1,200 1,000
Employment ('000)
199
800
297
600
904
400 200
603 478
Direct
Indirect
Induced
2025 2025
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2008
2009
2007
2006
2005
0
= Total contribution of Travel & Tourism
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TOURISM BANGLADESH: CAPITAL INVESTMENT IN TRAVEL & TOURISM Constant 2014 BDTbn 140 120 100 80 60 40
2,500.0
2025 2025
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005 1.8 1.6 1.4 1.2 1.0 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2
2025 2025
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
0.0 2008
3,000.0
% of whole economy GDP
2007
'000 jobs
0
2006
BANGLADESH: TOTAL CONTRIBUTION OF TRAVEL & TOURISM TO EMPLOYMENT
20
2005
INVESTMENT Travel & Tourism is expected to have attracted capital investment of BDT60.9bn in 2014. This is expected to rise by 2.7% in 2015, and rise by 7.8% pa over the next ten years to BDT132.1bn in 2025. Travel & Tourism’s share of total national investment will rise from 1.3% in 2015 to 1.6% in 2025.
All values are in constant 2014 prices & exchange rates
2,000.0 1,500.0 1,000.0 500.0 0.0
2014
Direct
Indirect
2015
Induced
20252025
% of whole economy employment 4.0 3.5 3.0 2.5 2.0 1.5 1.0 0.5 0.0
Direct
66
2014
2015
Indirect
Induced
2025 2025
haunts. This decade again is receiving a fresh batch of tourists eager to take on roads less travelled, and Bangladesh is at an advantage. Being slightly more secular and culturally diverse than neighboring Pakistan and less widely exposed in media than India, Bangladesh offers the necessary landscape for exploration that western tourists are currently seeking. The WTTC report estimated a total of BDT 10.2bn in visitor export, meaning, the money spent by foreign visitors in a country. Domestic travel spending generated 97.9% of direct Travel & Tourism GDP in 2014 compared with 2.1% for visitor exports (ie foreign visitor spending or international tourism receipts), where as Domestic travel spending is expected to grow by 5.9% in 2015 to BDT517.7bn, and rise by 5.9% pa to BDT917.8bn in 2025. Visitor exports are expected to grow by 3.7% in 2015 to BDT10.6bn, and rise by 5.7% pa to BDT18.4bn in 2025. To achieve and exceed the predicted growth rates the government and policy makers have a series of important actions to set in motion. Among these, essential infrastructural modifications, providing safety and security for tourists, and ensuring communication pathways require key attention in order to make the industry and its growth more sustainable. Graphs and charts from the World Travel & Tourism Council’s Economic Impacts Bangladesh 2015 report
INSIDE OUT
“The Bangladesh market is currently more suited to debit cards, but financial inclusion can be achieved through prepaid cards. We need to improve the infrastructure to bring more people into the financial system.� Syed Mohammad Kamal Country Manager, MasterCard Bangladesh
MASTERCARD Syed Mohammad Kamal, Country Manager, MasterCard Bangladesh, has over 23 years of diverse experience in industries ranging from FMCG to Financial Institutions. He started his career in the early 90s in the FMCG industry, having worked at companies like ACI and Berger Paints in different roles. He later moved to the financial industry and joined Western Union. Six years after, he set up the Western Union Bangladesh office, widening their network & revenue substantially. In June 2013 he joined MasterCard as the Country Manager for Bangladesh and started up the MasterCard Bangladesh office that very year. MasterCard has seen great momentum in the Bangladesh market due in part to his dynamic leadership. In his current position, he is also a member of the Foreign Investors Chamber of Commerce (FICCI), the Bangladesh Association of Software and Information Services (BASIS) and a Convening Committee Member of the BASIS E-commerce Alliance.
My first question is regarding the MasterCard Consumer Confidence Index, we have seen that Bangladesh did really well in 2014. So what’s your take on that? We’ve been releasing the MasterCard Consumer Confidence Index for over 20 years now covering the Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa markets, and recently included Bangladesh within the survey. The Index has proven to be an excellent barometer of general consumer pulse and we have seen remarkable growth in Bangladesh’s consumer optimism as our most recent Index shows. There’s been a massive improvement as confidence levels have almost doubled since two years ago – in H2 2013, it was around 40.5 Index points but by H2
2014, we’d reached 83.3 Index points making Bangladesh the most optimistic in the Asia Pacific region. Despite the overall Asia Pacific region seeing a slight decline in consumer confidence levels (65.5 Index points), Bangladesh recorded the single largest improvement in Asia Pacific, moving from optimistic to very optimistic territory (up 16.9 Index points), making it the only market that saw a double-digit rise in consumer sentiment. We believe the political stability during the period played a major role in helping improve consumer optimism in Bangladesh. Apart from that, we’ve seen a lot of advancements in general and as a digital payments provider, we’ve taken initiatives to introduce innovative payment options to this market.
Has the journey in Bangladesh been smooth so far for MasterCard? MasterCard has been around since 1997 – we were the first to launch credit cards in this market with Standard Chartered Bank and National Bank. We opened our first full-fledged MasterCard Bangladesh office in 2013 which has enabled us to even better support our customers, MasterCard cardholders and work more closely with regulators to improve the payments ecosystem in the country. This has been a huge boost for customers’ satisfaction levels as now we’re just a phone call away and we also have a deeper relationship with the Regulators so we can provide our counsel whenever they need it. However, the market at present is more suited to debit cards but there is definitely room for the introduction of prepaid cards which will help with the overall goal of improving financial inclusion. Globally around 85% of retail transactions are still happening through cash and in Bangladesh this figure is over 95%; so there is
obviously room for a lot more growth in digital money.
That brings me to my next question, what are your thoughts on the rise of Mobile Commerce in our country? Mobile financial services have made significant strides in Bangladesh as of late. In our country, we have over 25 million mobile wallets and one of these mobile wallet providers has become the second largest in the world, so mobile financial services definitely have a vital role to play here. As a payments provider, we believe there will be a convergence between cards and mobile financial services in the future and we are working closely with these service providers to make a World Beyond Cash a reality. There are projects in the pipeline to bring more innovative payment solutions to consumers.
If payments can be made through mobile phones do you think at some point we won’t need cards anymore? Is there a competition going on between these two methods of payment? We already have a product called the Virtual Prepaid Card which can also be linked to a mobile phone. There’s also NFC (Near Field Communication) payment, where you won’t need a physical card to make transactions but instead use your mobile phone which has been preloaded with your card details. We maintain the fastest processing network in the world and we already have all kinds of innovative technologies at MasterCard yet we’re always trying to look for new ways to innovate. MasterCard is already in partnership with companies such as Apple and Android with MasterCard tokenization technology powering the Apple Pay and Android Pay systems, so we don’t really see
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INSIDE OUT them as our competitors. You may not need a physical plastic at some point in the future when all you will need is a 16-digit digital account number to make a transaction. In due time, we feel that mobile payments and physical payment cards will complement each other and ultimately improve the financial payments ecosystem.
Do you think Bangladesh Bank is becoming more stringent in the case of online payment services since we still don’t have service like PayPal? The Central Bank has a lot of guidelines in place for the online payments market and there were issues regarding E-Commerce transactions so they have placed a 2-Factor Authentication mandate which will help streamline these transactions. Apart from that, the usual magnetic strip cards are transitionally being replaced by EMV Chip cards which will also give the cardholders an added layer of security. As an organization, MasterCard is also investing heavily in technology to provide a more secure and reliable payments option for our customers and cardholders. Bangladesh Bank can look into three specific areas which will increase digital transactions. Firstly, there is a 5 Lac taka cap for Credit cards in this market, which they might consider increasing. Secondly, they’ve already increased the travelers’ quota to 12 thousand dollars but we think it could be increased a bit further to improve the transaction transparency through formal channels. Currently people might be using informal channels to make transactions due to this restriction but if the traveler’s quota is increased such informal channels will be discouraged. Thirdly, international air tickets cannot be paid for through an international credit
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card, so Bangladesh Bank may consider opening up this option to enable more choice for consumers.
Asia is the go to destination right now according to some studies so do you provide any sort of offers to Bangladeshi travelers through MasterCard? From our recent Global Destination Cities Index, we’ve seen that from the top 10 countries, seven are located in Asia with Bangkok coming second on that list with 18.24 million overnight staying travelers last year. In this regard, MasterCard does provide global programs which give users access to international & domestic airport lounges, concierge services as well as travel, hotel and dining benefits and facilities at renowned golf courses. In Bangladesh, we have different campaigns running. For example, just last month we launched a cardholder campaign for travelers to Malaysia, be it for holiday or business. However, for us to provide more travel-centric campaigns, the traveler’s quota needs to increase as 12 thousand dollars per year may not be sufficient for people planning to travel throughout Europe and other regions.
MasterCard is doing a lot of work increase financial literacy. What made MasterCard pursue this avenue? Currently in an emerging market like Bangladesh, the level of the banked population is still very low and at the same time those who do have bank accounts may not know how to invest their money properly. So these financial literacy programs will make customers more aware about what they can do with the finances available to them, and so far we’ve launched two such programs in Bangladesh. During
our official inauguration in 2013, we initiated a project targeting a 100,000 women entrepreneurs with the help of Basic Unit for Resources and Opportunities of Bangladesh (BURO Bangladesh). The program focused on providing business and financial literacy, and entrepreneurial training. By the end of the training, these recipients would have taken the first steps towards starting their own businesses, and thus improving their position in the global economy, raising their standard of living and eventually their communities. More recently, we initiated the second phase of our program with BURO Bangladesh and NRB Global Bank to provide financial and business literacy for over 10,000 Taka 10 account holders. This program will support the Bangladesh Bank Revolving Refinancing Fund for financial inclusion, offering training to ensure effective use of the microfinance loans. If these Taka 10 account holders have the right financial and business literacy skills, they will be able to earn more money by investing properly. This will not only help them to pay back the loans but also to make overall improvements in their living standards. There are almost 13 million of these Taka 10 account holders but we are started with 10,000 and we hope to be able to eventually increase that number. We are also looking to start similar programs with the objective of giving back to the community and secondly to educate people who don’t have the proper financial literacy which will help them raise their living standards.
Is this part of your CSR Strategy? It definitely is and we strongly believe that if these people get the proper financial guidance they can play a vital role in improving the total economic state of the country.
PHOTO STORY
Art Meets Hospitality Photography By Din M Shibly & Kazi Mukul
“Destination Unlocked” – more than just a brand tagline for Le Méridien Dhaka. The capital’s newest hotel has made its global brand motto an integral part of its spatial design structure with art installations in contemporary appeals focused on local culture throughout its premises. Whilst the brand’s creative community (LM100™) of musicians, chefs, photographers, baristas and the like have taken care of its set Filters of Discovery (coordinates, culture and cuisines) with crafty brand programmes that help guests experience the local destination of each Le Méridien hotel in a unique way, Le Méridien Dhaka went the extra step to curate local features into its property design. Juxtaposed with the brand’s theme to cater to the culture seeking and creative-minded guests, the hotel is a visual minefield of artwork set against achromatic tones, offering curious discovery moments at every turn.
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Library
With the brand’s interest to inspire creative genius amongst guests in mind, Le Méridien Dhaka showcases classic library setup in the form of an art installation with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves filled with black and white pseudo-tomes running throughout its lobby area.
LE MERIDIEN
Bay of Bengal
In a combination of hundreds of dots of lights peeking out from between metal bars in black and yellow, a luminous representation of the Bay of Bengal graces the space where guests check-in and checkout, adding to graphic illusions of lobby space.
Carpets in guestrooms and suites Map Origami
Cosy seating corners add recesses to the broad corridors and long walkways of the endless public spaces with nifty art pieces such as an origami set made fully out of maps of Dhaka City.
As a tribute to the origin of Le MĂŠridien, Air France, the guestrooms and suites are all fitted with carpets that graphically represent the sonic boom of a Concorde aircraft taking off.
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PHOTO STORY
Topography of Dhaka City
Called the “Discovery Art�, guests enter the hotel to a breathtakingly curious sight of a vast wooden tilework crowning its two-story lobby depicting the aerial view of Dhaka City.
Community Table
As an extension of a library setup, a massive community table constructed of wood and metal stands in an enclave at the lounge bar on the ground floor of the hotel with wired Internet connectivity for guests to read, work and engage.
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LE MERIDIEN Unlock Art Keycard Frames
As part of the Unlock Art™ brand programme, the Le Méridien room keycards are collectible items depicting commissioned artworks by LM100™ artists and provide access for guests to a partner local culture centre. Each keycard design is framed and showcased behind the hotel front desk.
Terracotta tiles
Terracotta contour tiles poised on wooden board hint at classic craftsmanship of the indigenous from nooks and crannies of hotel corridors.
Lamp
Jamdani wall covering
Guestrooms feature a variety of lamps that juxtapose between the classic and contemporary, one of which is an abstract interpretation of hand-pressed water pumps still used in many local villages.
Instead of generic wallpapers, a custom-made satin cover overlay the walls of the Business Centre meeting room, illustrating Jamdani prints of native hand-loomed sarees.
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DIGITAL MARKETING
Chatting, Not so personal anymore
If you believe that messaging apps are built only to have private conversation, think again!
By Sohana Nasrin
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It is a tough world out there for digital marketers, just when they think that they have spotted the hottest platform, the world shifts and the audience migrates elsewhere. Who would have thought, off all the tools, chatting apps will change the face of digital marketing forever? Looking at the evolution, it is easy to foresee how mobile messaging apps like Whatsapp, WeChat, Line, Viber and likewise will revolutionize customer experience and therefore marketing. If you are still not convinced to get your chat app distribution in order, here’s something to
consider: even China’s (a country well known for censoring online contents) propaganda machine is embracing chat apps as a way to get eyeballs on their content. The messaging apps, also known as the “new face of social” deliver the three things that determine digital platform power: frequent interactions, emotional connections and convenience, says Forrester -a leading research company that provides advice on existing and potential impact on technology-expert Thomas Husson. Contrary to social platforms like Facebook and Twitter, messaging is an organic interface for a customer to ask for what they want on-demand in a private, personal environment that truly replicates a concierge model. For consumers, being able to communicate with brands via chatting apps will yield into highly personal support instantly with the elimination of phone call or other support channels; anytime, anywhere. Brands could drive loyalty through better customer experience and decrease operational cost if artificial intelligence is leveraged to automate the interactions. The use of mobile messaging apps is far greater than it was couple of years ago. An analysis conducted by Flurry (a mobile analytics, monetization, and advertising company) in 2014 showed the use of
WhatsApp, probably the most popular app that was purchased by Facebook for $19 billion, opened up the share button to the general publishing public in last May and the early results were staggering.
$19
billion
CHATTING APPS
The aforementioned developments aren’t only fascinating, those gives indications that chat apps are going to become increasingly important distribution channels for publishers of all kinds- from Buzzfeed to GE to Coca-Cola. The average age of social messaging app users does not always skew to teens or younger adults, but in fact, messaging apps appeal to a wide range of users. Nearly 60% of Line’s audiences are between 30 and 50 years old which definitely leverages the brands in terms of marketing. WhatsApp, probably the most popular app that was purchased by Facebook for $19 billion, opened up the share button to the general publishing public in last May and the early results
Unique to Platforms
Gaming
Location Service
Media Sharing
Stickers
Voice Call
Group Chat
Voice Message
Source: GWI and Statista.com as of Q3/Q4 2014, and each app’s official site
were staggering. After just one week, USA Today viral sports site FTW FTW saw WhatsApp stake claim to 18% of its overall sharing-button activity. And as Nieman Lab reported in an excellent feature last summer, BBC is embracing chat apps to distribute news around the world—through WhatsApp and WeChat in India, Mxit in South Africa, and BBM in Nigeria. Besides social features, messaging apps are becoming incredibly rich in both functionality and utility. WeChat is currently considered the most cutting-edge app in this space and is much more than a “Made-in-China” messaging app. WeChat has successfully transformed itself in to a multimedia platform allows third parties to connect with consumers through their content and services. Users can pick up a date based on nearby locations, transfer money between WeChat friends, and much more. In China, it’s not unusual for WeChat users to do things like pay phone bills, order a taxi, buy flight tickets, manage finances or purchase products directly on the platform. These features are not available to global users yet but are likely to be rolled out as
Text Message
messaging apps worldwide increased 316% between year-end 2012 and year-end 2013. Portio Research estimates messaging revenue worldwide will peak at $239.7 billion in 2015 and then decline 1% in 2016 and another 4% in 2017, to @227.1 billion. As SMS traffic decline as a result of the rise of mobile apps, the volume of traffic from messaging apps is expected to increase dramatically. By 2018, Juniper Research estimates instant messaging apps will comprise 75% of mobile messaging traffic worldwide but just 2% o the messaging revenue. Unlike wireless carriers, which profit directly from the transmission of messages, the most profitable chat apps draw their profits from in-app purchases, advertising and in some cases mobile payments.
WhatsApp Video Call, Timeline, Official Accounts, Payment, Commerce, Dating, Creat viedo
Video call, Timeline, Official Accounts Payment, Timeline
Line
Video Call, Public Chats
Viber
Source: each app’s official site
WeChat expands into additional markets. Simply put, chat apps are blowing up, and people are using them to share everything they would on a traditional social network. WhatsApp surpassed 600 million monthly active users; Line reached 500 million monthly active users late last year, while WeChat was closing in on the same figure. Twitter, by comparison, has less than 300 million active monthly users. Some of the marketers may still be skeptic as it is hard to track the traffic that comes from the chat apps, traffic that has no referral data. Good news is, the world’s first API that will allow brands to engage consumers through chat apps has already been launched. This launching promises yet again to change the current face of digital marketing. Therefore, marketers- look before you leap- digital intimacy might be the next big thing for your brand.
WhatsApp surpassed 600 million monthly active users; Line reached 500 million monthly active users late last year, while WeChat was closing in on the same figure. Twitter, by comparison, has less than 300 million active monthly users.
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TECH GIANT
Microsoft’s Volte-face
New CEO Satya Nadella is changing everything for the better
By Abhijit Asad
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The Microsoft of today is a very different beast from what it used to be even a few years ago. The tech giant had been stuck in a downward spiral with its strange mishmash of confused offerings, which, although profitable, were not doing much to help its image as the stuffy brand with nothing particularly unique to offer. Windows 8, otherwise a perfectly
functional operating system with excellent feature sets and performance, had earned terrifyingly bad press because of a poor user interface-related decision, and many people had been unwilling to even give the new UI a chance in fear of alienation. While many of its divisions showed signs of success, and Microsoft Windows still had the largest user base in the world among all operating systems, the company had seemed to have lost all sense of purpose, drifting aimlessly and churning out ho-hum products. However, the arrival of a new CEO, the Indian-American Satya Narayana Nadella, last February following the retirement of the previous CEO, the notorious Steve Ballmer, radically turned everything around. The wiry, bespectacled, soft-spoken Nadella was as different in his methods as he was in appearance from his rotund and boisterous predecessor, and one of the first things he did upon his arrival was to send an email to every employee, outlining a radical new direction which the company would be taking under his leadership. The email outlined Microsoft’s increased concentration in the fields of cloud services and mobile devices, and also set the stage for a massive change in the company’s culture and innovative practices, turning it from a hulking, sluggish behemoth into a
A practical man, Nadella understood that the simplest way to achieve success in this regard was to reach the greatest number of users, even if that meant invading territories beyond the realm of Windows
MICROSOFT
Nadella’s greatest strength lies in having the amazing foresight accepting and embracing the existing technological ecosystems – often ones owned by competitors – instead of opposing and alienating them as most tech companies are wont to do. nimble yet immensely powerful speedster. Unlike the myopic Ballmer, Nadella saw the problems eating away at Microsoft’s core right away, as well as the lucrative opportunities floating around waiting to be seized, and his actions were quick and decisive.His most significant move upon his ascension to the CEO’s throne was the creation of a new team by the name of Windows and Devices Group, which would focus on developing the Windows ecosystem across the board, creating a unified computing experience on all devices, regardless of size. While the crisp and tile-based Modern User Interface (previously known as the ‘Metro UI’) had been well-received by Windows Phone users, its desktop iteration, in the form of Windows 8, was met with a
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great deal of opposition, and most users refused to even give it a chance, instead sticking with older versions of Windows. The Windows and Devices Group, under the leadership of industry veteran Terry Myerson, set out to integrate the Modern UI experience for mobile and desktop users alike. The resultant unification, known as ‘Continuum’, is due to appear in future releases of Windows as a standard feature, to finally close the rift between the platforms. In terms of impact, its importance cannot be understated, and the tentative glimpses of it which have been witnessed on the Technical Preview releases of the upcoming Windows 10 have brought forth a unanimously positive response from users, who were delighted to see the much-missed Start Menu back in action, albeit in a new tile-augmented form. The most important change brought forth by Nadella, though, was an overall paradigm shift in Microsoft’s approach toward competitors. By setting himself apart from his overly confrontational predecessor yet again, Nadella chose to be the ultimate pragmatist, and broke down the walls of outdated policies that prevented Microsoft from expanding. A practical man, Nadella understood that the simplest way to achieve success in this regard was to reach the greatest number of users, even if that meant invading territories beyond the realm of Windows. Under Nadella’s direction, the Microsoft Office productivity suite and the OneDrive cloud storage platform were launched for Android and iOS operating systems, an act which would have been considered nothing less than
With 128,000 employees and sales worth 93.27 billion worldwide, Microsoft is world's 2nd most valuable brand.
blasphemous in the Ballmer era. This gutsy move paid off, however, and user numbers for the Microsoft offerings shot up rapidly upon being exposed to the most popular OS environments. Setting the stage for his cross-platform invasion, Nadella was just getting warmed up. His next move was to announce that Microsoft’s exclusive Visual Studio and .NET Framework development tools would be open-sourced and made available to all software developers – including those on Mac OS X and Linux platforms. While the decision may not sound particularly enticing to the uninitiated ear, its impact was nothing short of seismic in the developer community, as a a wealth of development options were suddenly opened up to developers that they previously did not have access to. Previously, when they wished to avail the features of Microsoft’s .NET Framework, Linux- and Mac-based developers had to rely on a clone of it called Mono, which was not nearly as solid or stable as the real thing. But the sudden and unexpected release of the tools to all developers across the board meant that a lot more people would suddenly be moving to Microsoft’s development arenas, and allow the company to establish a firm foothold even in previously uncharted waters. It would also mean that the applications developed using these tools natively on Mac and Linux platforms would be far easier to port to Windows, thus creating a wide two-way autobahn of development bridging the platforms. Nadella’s greatest strength lies in having the amazing foresight accepting and embracing the existing technological ecosystems – often ones owned by competitors – instead of opposing and alienating them as most tech companies are wont to do. He is perhaps the first CEO of Microsoft to clearly understand that it is a far more productive path to join the competitors instead of trying to beat them. For Microsoft, this is indeed a massive change in direction, but it is certainly not an unpopular one. Microsoft’s public imageis well on the way to shifting from orthodox and reviled to maverick and open-minded. When Microsoft launched the first
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TECH GIANT
Surface tablets (or hybrids, if you take the separate keyboard unit into account), the attention they received was lukewarm at best. Despite sporting excellent build quality and a rather ingenious kickstand mechanism, the Surface brand didn’t quite make it big until recently, when the Surface division finally struck the right balance of quality, power and price, and came up with the third iteration of the Surface, a sleek device that was very much capable of giving most Apple Macbooks a run for their money while costing far less. Under Nadella’s guidance, the Surface range has finally attained maturity as a legitimately respectable (and not to mention profitable) brand. One of Microsoft’s major weaknesses in the old days had been the fact that, despite its massive market presence, it had never quite been hailed for its innovations, unlike its rivals Google and Apple. In other words, it has not been the most
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exciting brand in the world, choosing to focus on tried and true approaches instead. However, Nadella seems adamant on changing that image as well, and this year Microsoft’s research labs unveiled what they had been working on – an augmented reality-driven holographic user interface by the name of Hololens. Instead of limiting users to screens and traditional input peripherals, Hololens wants the user to don a high-tech visor and engage in immersive and natural interaction with elements around them using body gestures. Meant to blur the line between the user and the machine, Hololens is perhaps the most original and interesting take on augmented reality devices seen so far, and its utilities are only limited by one’s imagination. We can’t wait to see where Microsoft’s researchers take it from here. However, Nadella’s reign as CEO is not completely about opening doors, it also involves closing quite a few. Even in his introductory mail, Nadella mentioned that the company would be facing numerous ‘tough choices’, which would inevitably result in the shutdown of unprofitable or unattractive product or service ranges. Nadella has made it fairly clear that the new Microsoft would be a lot more customer-focused than the Microsoft of old, and even if it means massive reallocation of company resources, it shall be done without hesitation. Whipping dead horses has led to the demise of many a powerful company, and the new Microsoft seems to have taken their lessons to heart. Recently, rumours (yet to be confirmed) have been afloat that Microsoft
may even adapt the mighty Android (Google’s open source golden boy) as its mobile OS of choice if the Windows Phone range does not undergo sufficient growth over the coming quarters. Easy decision? No. Effective? Absolutely. All in all, Microsoft is working heart and soul to change its game and turn itself into a brand which would resonate with the needs and wants of users from every platform, and from what the world has witnessed so far, it has the perfect captain at the helm to spearhead this titanic transformation. Microsoft has been around for more than forty years, and perhaps never has it been more exciting to customers and shareholders alike.
5
(1)
3.
4.
Things You Didn’t Know About Microsoft’s New Champion Satya Nadella remains in regular touch with Bill Gates, whom he considers his mentor.
He grew up in Hyderabad, India.
2.
Nadella is a huge cricket fan, and he cites the nature of the game as the primary inspiration behind his business tactics.
He loves English and Indian poetry.
5. He loves
sweet food, but jogs regularly to stay fit.
Photographs of Satya Nadella from news.microsoft.com
NEXT BIG THING
Seeing is Believing By Sumaiya Mutiatur
A leap of ‘real’ magic by Augmented Reality! By Abhijit Asad
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Remember how in the film Avatar; the soldiers conjured up a visual image of the Tree of Soul on a map inside the RDA headquarter? Will it not be cool if we could summon similar life-size Ramna Batamul in an indoor folk music concert? That is possible today thanks to Augmented Reality –a trendy technology where layers of digital data are added atop the natural environment in the form of text, multimedia and graphics to create interactive digital
experience. The clever computer programming and the compelling storytelling of the designs ensure such human-experience based service accessible through our mobile devices using software, internet, GPS system, and in-built camera.
FOR USER’S EYES ONLY Arthur C Clark, co-author of the famous sci-fi film 2001: A Space Odyssey once said that ‘Any sufficiently advanced
TECH
$542m
the ace of AR market is believed to be in Google’s sleeve. This tech giant has invested a jaw-dropping $542 million to acquire a US-based augmented reality startup Magic Leap.
technology is indistinguishable from Magic’. Truly,augmented reality (AR)is a combination of magic and science that creates illusions of objects – a skyscraper, a sports car or even something live as a football star - without those really being anywhere near. AR retains the real world, which although in Einstein’s words ‘is merely an illusion’, and only superimposes digital information with help of pre-installed software. Thus, it creates a mixed-reality something that devices like Facebook’s Oculus Rift and Sony’s Morpheus ignore.Users can choose whether they will allow the illusions to occur, enjoy less clutter and give spontaneous interaction.
A MAGICIAN’S HAT FOR MARKETERS
Unlike its twin brother Virtual Reality, AR has seen more commercial success having retail, real estate, theme park, games, and e-commerce brands in its crown. Especially effective for the new generation of marketers, it can turn everyday materials like a static billboard, a magazine cover or even GPS location into multimedia experience and interactive contents.For instance, Pepsi
made an interactive Bus stop in London using AR technology while Hugo Boss turned its store windows AR enabled to give the passers-by an idea of in-store environment andIKEA used AR to educate customers on how to assemble a product. In Bangladesh too, we have local firms like Ice9 Interactive or Magnito Digital making customized AR-enabled digital solutions. Robihas already introduced AR-enabled Robi Store Locator Apps while GSK Bangladesh launched an AR-based Game to promote ‘Horlicks for Woman’.
VENTURES WRAPPED IN ILLUSIONS
However, AR is not solely a marketing gimmick but away of futuristic business. A carefully designed augmented reality can create simulation training for employees, indicate locations for storing products in a warehouse or make personification of a virtual assistant. In fact, with the advent of wearable technologies, field of AR will be taking the world by storm. According to a research firm, AR market is expected to generate USD 120 million cumulatively by 2020. Thus, we see Microsoft inventingHoloLensto dictate
future of gaming industry. Meanwhile, AppleInc.took over German AR tech-based firm Metaio tointegrate Metaio’s technology with Apple’sMap&in-depth motion sensors. Such move probably aims to build foundations forlong-waited autonomous vehicle. Sony is already competing against Google Glass with its Sony SmartEyeglass equipped with ‘Augmented Reality Lenses’. However, the ace of AR market is believed to be in Google’s sleeve. This tech giant has invested a jaw-dropping USD542 million to acquire a US-based augmented reality startup Magic Leap. How will Magic Leap support Google is kept under lock and keys which effectively holds the curiosity of the shareholders. So far, tight-lipped officials from Magic leap only disclosed that, it would introduce ‘Cinematic Reality’ for users and there might be an entirely new type of interface lurking to bring magic back to life.
FROM REEL TO ‘REAL’
‘Cinematicreality’is an apt name for AR considering its massive presence in the silver screen. Be it Tony Stark having live-feeding computer-data while flying around in his signature Iron-man suit or Tom Cruisenavigating his BMW by using a holographic display in MI6: The Ghost Protocol, Augmented reality is always a handy gizmo for filmmakers. In fact, it’s also being used as a promotional tool prior to movie release. For instance, Sony Pictures released anAR-enabled 3-D alien battle game in collaboration with McDonalds prior to releasing the much acclaimed sci-fi flick District 9. Technology’s interaction with Hollywood seems to be mutually beneficial. Judging by the sensational hypes, big experiments and mysterious acquisitions, we can expect that augmented reality will someday become ‘The Reality’.
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NEXT BIG THING Estate Conference on Technology and Marketing. It would be a great way to introduce our company to potential realtors and engineers while we can take pointers from other participants.
Interactivity: Natural Future of Marketing Afeef Zubaer Zaman, Managing Director of Ice9 Interactive, revealed the possibilities and challenges of augmented reality in Bangladesh as well as a peek into their latest venture: “Just like putting print ads or running TV commercials is a norm for marketing today, AR & Interactive technology will also become a custom, a norm and a must-do for any business” How did you start to work on interactive marketing and AR? We are eight friends with common fascination in animation and 3D. During our graduation, we worked with Maverick studios to create different audio-visual contents. Gradually, after discoveringthe need for interactive content marketing in future business landscape, we formed Ice9 Interactive – an interactive digital solution provider for corporate houses and institutions. Our motto is to serve the customers with an unforgettable experience, to surprise them with even a tiniest trick be it the smooth handy interface, easy to load apps or texturally rich designs. What’s your opinion regarding AR technology and whether it’s relevant for our local market? Interactive tools are the natural
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future of content marketing. Just like putting print ad or running TV commercial is a norm for marketing today, AR & Interactive technology will also become a custom, a norm, & a must-do for any business. Hence, we are extensively targeting the international market where the change is already taking place. Speaking of local market, the adaptation to AR might be low due to market maturity, internet connectivity and smartphone penetration. But, that situation will change eventually and local market will infuse with futuristic technology. What are you currently focusing on? Our main concentration is on Auleek– a new venture for Interactive digital marketing that we launched in June 2015. Apart from that, we are also gearing up as a sponsorofthe Xplode conference – a US-based Real
What’s so special about this new venture - Auleek? Auleek is a specific wing that pinpoints the need for interactive digital solutions for real-estate and architecture. Augmented reality & other interactive tools can easily induce the perception of space - which is, in reality, an immobile and limited resource. With our help, realtors and architects can showcase their project with accurate perception even before its built! Also, we have had the highest response from real estate industry since inception; thus our efficiency in 3D modeling of buildings or infrastructure gives us a competitive edge. So, considering the scalability of this niche but profitable market, we opened a dedicated venture Auleek. Under it, we are already developing interactive 3D modules with AR & VR technology for commercial clients in Australia, Finland, Sweden, and United Kingdom. Have there been any challenges on the way? Our quality depends on our core people – the programmers. However, the curriculum offered in the country is not compatible to cop up with global interactive technology. So, we have to headhunt vigorously and invest considerable time and resources for a new member; give them opportunity to experiment until they hit the right cord. Such effort becomes challenging when we have many projects in the pipeline. Is there any other information you want our readers to know? Please don’t confuse us as an outsourcing business. We do not make cheaper replica of any existingsolutionhanded down by overseas clients. Instead, we generate completely new customized interactive solutions for clients using our creativity, programming skills and a bucket load of passion. We are, rather, a business of exporting advanced technology – with futuristic designs and complex layers, and we do it sitting right here in Bangladesh!
MUSIC INDUSTRY
ALL NOT TOO WELL?
Taylor Swift’s “Bad Blood” With Streaming Services is going to change the music industry for good
By Zeba Fariba
T
The youngest woman on Forbes “100 most powerful women”, Singer, song writer and cultural symbol Taylor Swift is without a doubt one of the biggest things in the musical world. Her alluring voice, honest music and down to earth attitude has helped sell more than 1.28 million
The number of paying subscribers to subscription services rose to 41 million in 2014, which was 28 million in 2013 and only eight million in 2010.Internationally, revenues from music subscription services grew by 51.5 percent in 2013 and by 39 percent in 2014.
copies of her album “1989” in its debut weekwhich will no doubt help her boost her net worth even further from an already hefty sum of $195.8 million. Her interaction with fans by throwing what she calls “T-Parties”, where the crowd is scanned for the most excited fans who are invited to meet Taylor herself, could tell us how her latest music video “Bad Blood” broke the Vevo record for maximum hits in 24 hours, garnering 20.1 million views in the first day.However this is not the reason she has come further to highlight lately in social media. On June 21stSwift wrote an open letter to Apple via her Tumblr blog, describing that she would be withholding her album, 1989, from their new streaming service “Apple Music”. This, Swift wrote, was due to the fact that the service was offering a three month trial for consumer, the period of which they would not be paying the artists whose music would be streamed. Her stance, she explained, was not for herself, but for the new artists and bands who released their first single. Immediately after this letter, Apple’s media chief, Eddy Cue announced on his Twitter that the artists would be paid during the three month trial service from Apple’s own funds. Swift afterwards agreed to allow her album on Apple Music adding that “This is simply the first time it's felt right in my gut to stream
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APPLE
my album. Thank you, Apple, for your change of heart.” Meanwhile,if you are unfamiliar with the music streaming industry, it’s time to look it up!According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry(IFPI), the global digital music market has been on the rise since 2008. In 2013 however this was not due to digital downloads as it had been in the past, but rather revenues from streaming services which grew by 62 percent in the US from 2011 to 2012 accounting to 13 percent of the global digital music market. The number of paying subscribers to subscription services rose to 41 million in 2014, which was 28 million in 2013 and only eight million in 2010.Internationally, revenues from music subscription services grew by 51.5 percent in 2013 and by 39 percent in 2014. The record companies are adapting to business models that support streaming music. In 2014 they had derived 32 percent of its digital revenues from subscription and ad-supported streaming services, up from 27 percent in 2013. The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) stated that music streaming revenue in Australia doubled in 2014, up 111% from 2013. Digital Subscription and ad supported models now make up over 10 % of the total market value.In the US, revenue earned from
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streaming services summed up to $1867 million in 2014, which was only $651 million in 2011. According to IFPI, 47% Internet users in Sweden were subscribed to free or premium streaming services, while in France this accounted to 36%, 32% in Italy, 23% in USA, 22% in UK and 12% in Germany. While Global music streaming brands such as Deezer and Spotify further expanded geographically, according to The Wall Street Journal, Apple’s iTunes suffered a loss of worldwide revenue amounting to between 13 to 14 percent, mostly due to subscription services cementing their position over digital downloads in the race for digital content sales. This lead to Apple buying Beats in 2014 for US$3billion to rebrand and re-service it and launch as Apple Music on 30th June, 2015. However if streaming services are so successful then why is there so much negativity from artists about them? Well, previously Swift had a run-in with Spotify where she pulled her music from the service explaining that there was an absence of valuation of art. The fact that Spotify allows users to listen to music for free hurts a lot of the artists, small and new ones in particular. In fact, in spite Swift being one of the most successful artists in history, she was paid only $500,000 in 12 months by Spotify.She even praised some other streaming sites such as Rhapsody and the previous Beats Music since they offered only paid subscription based services. So it seems that the smart thing to do for streaming services is to go from their “freemium”(some services are free but you need to pay for the rest) model to premium
Photographs from Internet
TAYLOR SWIFT
services. However the CEO of Warner Music Group, Stephen Cooper, warns against this pointing out that doing so will lead back to piracy, which results in zero revenue for the artist. It is also to be considered that the state of individual streaming companies are not the best right now, seeing that Spotify, the flagship of the music streaming world, reported a loss of €162m in 2014 alone. The celebrities of today hold a lot of power over corporations and are a funnel that guides the average Joe’s thoughts. Take for example John Oliver and his show “Last Week Tonight”. On his June 1st episode released on Youtube he pleaded with Budweiser, Adidas, McDonalds the major sponsors of FIFA to pull corrupt president Sepp Blatter, sure enough Budweiser tweets spiked by 525 percent from 207 to 1,296. In the following week Sepp Blatter resigned his position. For John Oliver it was Youtube and Twitter that helped reach a global audience, for Taylor it was Tumblr. Social media grants celebrities power over corporations and can help bring big changes with the help of their fans. The general public do not have the power to bring these kind of changes but maybe more celebrities like Taylor Swift will help make these changes a reality.
Immediately after this letter, Apple’s media chief, Eddy Cue announced on his Twitter that the artists would be paid during the three month trial service from Apple’s own funds.
TRAVEL
EUROPE CALLING
When you have the time and money figured out, a well outlined plan is the only thing that stands between you and your dream destinations in Europe By Sohana Nasrin
W What is the one thing that you wish you could do more? Wait, I think I know the answer, because nine out of ten times I have gotten the same answer and it sounds something like “I wish I could travel more”. The world might look small on Google Earth or on Facebook, but if you have a traveler’s blood, you would know- your travel bucket list is unending. There are so many places to go, so many books to read and so many cultures to meet. With the rise of budget airlines, vacation packages, and accommodation sites like Airbnb, traveling is not something that you need to spend a fortune on. However, this piece is nor for budget travelers neither for those who love flying in different continents in less than seven days. Instead, it’s for those who want to travel plentifully, blending with the people and culture and making stops at about every city that they can get their feet on.
Amsterdam Europe is a fascinating continent for those who want to travel generously. Known as the birthplace of Western culture, Europe is home to fifty countries that altogether attract about 563.44 million international tourists in a year on average. The continent offers many different cultures, magnificent scenery and world renowned cities all of which are well-connected by train. Train is not merely transportation in Europe; it is a part of the European way of life that leads to a unique cultural experience for those who are hungry for knowledge. A Eurail pass, the one company that offers passes for people who are citizen of non-European country, enables you enjoy incomparable freedom and suppleness. You can get the speed and comfort of a train at a knock-down price by choosing the budget train passes in advance from the relevant operator, just as you would do with a budget airline. There are several kinds of passes which you can choose depending on your duration of traveling. You can opt for a Eurail Global Pass if you don’t want to miss most of Europe. This pass will allow you to unlimited travel to 28 countries (see the table) either within 15 days or a
All these come with a price of € 930 per pass including shipping charge for the pass. This might seem like a dream coming true, but you can hop on and off trains at any time just by showing up at the nearest train station and getting ready to explore a new destination.
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EURO TRIP month and gives you the freedom to hit the tracks whenever and wherever you want. All these come with a price of € 930 per pass including shipping charge for the pass. This might seem like a dream coming true, but you can hop on and off trains at any time just by showing up at the nearest train station and getting ready to explore a new destination. Good news for the avid planners out there- your pass comes with a Eurail travel pack that includes travel maps and user guide. However, since the pass works through different trains operated by different companies, some of the trains need advance reservations. The seats are generally available for reservation up to 90 days prior to departure and are limited. Book early to secure your seat! Now that we have figured out the finances and hopefully the time is generous too to permit you to pack your bags and leave for the dream trip, let’s take a look at some of the activities that you can consider while traveling: Visiting Paris - a visit to Europe wouldn't be complete without visiting one of the world's most popular travel destinations. It’s been labeled the most beautiful, romantic, fashionable, cultural, artistic, delicious, and expensive city in the world. Where do you start? Just throw yourself right in and you will find your way, just be patient and ready to walk a lot. Learning Roman history in Rome- go and check out the sites of Pompeii and Herculaneum, near Naples. Don’t forget to taste the famous pizza and other culinary delights that Italy has to offer. When one is talking about visiting Italy, if the food isn’t one of the things you’re most excited about, you might be a little dead inside.
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Learning Greek history in Athens, Greece- Catch a ferry to a near-by island, such as Hydra and ride a donkey. Gyros is your go-to food and mezes are shared with friends . Some of Greece’s lesser-known natural wonders, authentic towns and archaeological sites are just as stunning – and have many fewer tourists, allowing for a more intimate experience. Seeing the Old Town of Prague with its castle and bridge- visit the city in December and check out the Christmas Market if the time permits. While Prague is amazing and its not difficult to fall in love with all the romantic ideas that swirl through the idyllic, history soaked streets, it's very touristy, so you might also want to get out of the city and explore some unbeaten roads. Soaking up the sun on the popular beaches - whether you head to Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, or Croatia. Make sure you do your homework on the lesser known beaches of Europe because you never know in which of those you will find the peace of mind that you are looking for. Seeing the medieval castles all over the continent: From Syria to Austria and Italy, medieval castles were built between the 5th and the 15th century as private fortified residences of a lord or noble. This activity will allow you to learn more about the bygone era and have a deep insight into the cultures. Athens
Athens
SO MUCH TO EXPLORE TRAVEL
Paris Austria
Visiting the museums in London- Though the food isn't renowned worldwide; you may want to visit the museums in London. Read online about the museums in advance so that you can choose the ones those truly interest you. Visiting Amsterdam for a wide range of activities- from visiting the famed coffee shops to the many museums in this beautiful city, there is nothing that you cannot possibly do in Amsterdam. Let’s not forget about the canal cruise and walking tours of the magnificent city.
Italy
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EURO TRIP
Germany
The mentioned activities are some suggestions that you can consider if you are really one of those devoted planners. I would say go and land in a train station and throw yourself out there in the new culture and crowd, you have 274 at your fingertips. Bon Voyage!
NEED TO KNOW:
London
Prague
The Eurail Global Pass covers the 28 countries listed below: (Please use this info on a table; you might use a landmark icon for each country or simply their flags to make those visually important): Austria Czech Republic Finland Ireland Netherlands Romania Spain
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Belgium Croatia Hungary Italy Norway Serbia Sweden
Bulgaria Denmark Germany Luxembourg Poland Slovakia Switzerland
Bosnia and Herzegovina France Greece Montenegro Portugal Slovenia Turkey
Trains on which seat reservations are mandatory: • Eurostar (International train operating between Paris, London and Brussels) • Thalys (International train operating between Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam) • TGV Lyria (International train operating between France and Switzerland) • TGV France-Italy (International train operating between France and Italy) • France-Spain high speed (International train operating between France and Spain) • ICE international trains (International train operating between German and neighbouring countries) • TGV international trains (International train operating between France and neighbouring countries) • Intercité trains (domestic trains operating in France) • Intercité de nuit (domestic night French night trains) How to use your rail pass: You must start using your rail pass within six months of the date of purchase. To start using your rail pass, go to a European railway station where a railway official will fill-in your passport number and stamp your rail pass. On each travel day, please remember to write down the date on your rail pass. You should record your trip in the Travel Report on the rail pass cover. Passengers travelling without having written down the above information risk a fine and payment of a full fare ticket. Why explore Europe by train? • Speed and practicality: European train link almost every city and town at up to 199 mph, often faster than flying as there’s no 2-hour check-in, no airport security strip-search. • Comfort and relaxation: Unlike air travel, train travel is low stress and low hassle. On trains, you get to move around, enjoy the plenty of legroom and sit and wonder about life in a café. • Scenery and the experience: There is often superb scenery often giving a ground level feel of the country that you are traveling. Athens
ON THE BOOKSHELF
READ BEFORE YOU THINK
These books will make you live a life that you have always wished for By Banna Hasanul
T
The joy of reading a business book is something different. Readers are able to put themselves in the shoes of the company chiefs and based on the information provided; figure out the way ahead, sometimes to save the company and sometimes to take it to a new dynamic height. In addition, when the readers are already satisfied with this fantasy game, often business books provide with a psychological analysis of the great minds behind great businesses. Leadership insights and real life examples derived form case studies make the business books not only entertaining but also worth reading, even for those who barely have time to eat and breath. After going through several sources of recommendations, ICE Business Times churns out some books that are worth your time:
The book, containing anecdotes that offer glimpse of Mayer’s intense personality, is definitely a lively and meticulously researched attempt form Carlson.
Marissa Mayer and the Fight to Save Yahoo:
It’s a no brainer that everyone was eagerly waiting to read the story of the vogue-posing lady getting back the once King of Internet (Yahoo!). It turns out that this book is a lot more than Mayer’s time at Yahoo!. After a brief prologue, readers don’t run into Mayer again until more than 130 pages later, when, in part II of his book the author describes Mayer’s early life and career at Google. Part III of the book returns to the behind-the-scenes battles between activist shareholders and Yahoo executives that dominate much of the early part of the book. Marissa Mayer finally enters the Yahoo! building for the first time nearly 250 pages in, giving Nicholas Carlson, the Chief Correspondent with Business Insider, and less than 100 pages to cover Mayer’s two years (so far) at the helm of Yahoo!. The book, containing anecdotes that offers glimpse of Mayer’s intense personality, is definitely a lively and meticulously researched attempt form Carlson. Give it a read if you want to know the things that can keep a big bumbling tech company to stay relevant in today’s rapidly changing business landscape.
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GOOD READ
When to Rob a Bank:
MARISSA MAYER AND THE FIGHT TO SAVE YAHOO! By Nicholas Carlson
WHEN TO ROB A BANK By Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner
HOW TO FLY A HORSE: THE SECRET HISTORY OF CREATION, INVENTION AND DISCOVERY By Kevin Ashton
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In celebration of the 10th anniversary of the landmark book Freakonomics, comes this curated collection from Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner- better known as the Freakonomics guys. In their attempt to investigate into the economics of everyday thing, Levitt and Dubner have been keeping up a provocative blog that aims at discovering the underpinning of society. Astounding and erudite, stirring and witty, When to Rob a Bank justifies the Freakonomics guys being international sensations, with more than 7 million books sold in 40 languages and 150 million downloads o their Freakonomics Radio podcast. Over the decades, Levitt and Dubner have won acclaim for their collection of bizarre facts and figures in Freakonomics. Now the authors are back with more appeals. It’s a good question: when is the best time to rob a bank? Mornings are better than afternoons — the average morning haul for robberies in the United States is $5,180 compared with $3,705 in the afternoon. The book is filled with uncanny statistics like this, written in a more personal and outlandish tone. Why not read and laugh while you learn some everyday economics, in a rather bizarre way!
How to Fly a Horse: The Secret History of Creation, Invention and Discovery:
Have you ever heard people say “I haven’t got a creative bone in my body” and believed them? Kevin Ashton, the pioneering technology entrepreneur who created the idea of the “internet of things” is set to debunk the myth that “businesses are built by magic touch”. He believes that everyone can create, whether we have a particularly high IQ or not, provided that there is necessity. In his much inspiring book, Ashton takes the readers behind the scenes of creation to reveal the true process of discovery. From Archimedes to Apple, from Kandinsky to the Coke can, from the Wright brothers - who set out to ‘fly a horse' - to Woody Allen, he exposes the seemingly unremarkable individuals, gradual steps, multiple failures and countless ordinary and often uncredited acts that led to our most astounding breakthroughs. Though the subtitle of How to Fly a Horse promises a “secret history” of creation, the secret is, essentially, that there is no secret. Creativity is the result of hard work, learning the foundations and getting better at problem-solving. That’s bad news for those hoping a bump on the head will lead to the design for the flux capacitor that transforms the DeLorean into a time machine. It’s good news, however, for everyone else, since it means that creativity is accessible to anyone.
Astounding and erudite, stirring and witty, When to Rob a Bank justifies the Freakonomics guys being international sensations, with more than 7 million books sold in 40 languages and 150 million downloads o their Freakonomics Radio podcast.
CORPORATE FITNESS
Eat, Pray and Stay fit
Ruslam Md Hossain answers some common questions on diet and workout regime during the month of Ramadan What kind of work out/exercise regime, do you suggest during Ramadan considering people fast during the day and have prayer commitment after Iftar? Scheduling workout time during Ramadan in summer is a bit difficult than in winter as the days are longer in summer. You will have less time to eat, drink and train; on top of that you have evening prayers soon after the Iftar. Lifting weights or doing intense cardio sessions while fasting is not wise at all. Heat in summer will induce nausea and dehydration. Our primary goal during Ramadan should be to maintain our weight with some change in dietary fat consumption. Chances are you might lose some strength and mass but on the flip side, you will look great. Nevertheless, in the process, we need to be really accurate with our meal and training timing right from iftar till suhor. And the ideal time for training will be right before iftar. Light cardio and after the evening prayer, lifting weights or bodyweight circuits are good. Try to find out a gym that stays open till late and will allow to finish their workout after evening prayer. When you hit the gym, focus on squat ,deadlift and bench-press as they are going to be enough for a full body workout. If you have trouble doing deadlift, do weighted hyperextentions as alternative; do them three times a week. If you’re missing out the gym then you should consider doing body weight circuits four to five times a week.
EAT, PRAY AND STAY FIT
When it comes to cardio it’s better to do them right before iftar; twenty to thirty minutes of walking in a park or a treadmill wont dehydrate you much as you will break your fast right after and will do great for burning fat as cardio done during fasting will allow you to burn more stubborn fat stored around the hips and thighs for women and abs and lower back for man. Do them four to five times a week.
As a certified nutritionist, any particular diet chart with specific nutritional requirements for Ramadan that you would like to suggest for the corporate professionals? When it comes to the diet during Ramadan ensuring proper nutrition and hydration is a must. We should choose the right food such as whole grain fibrous carbohydrate (brown rice, oats, brown bread),fresh vegetables and fruits, low fat dairy products,lean meat and fresh fish. It’s better not to try and aim for specific macros rather focus on getting all of them in right amount. Protein 1.5g/kg ,Carb1g/kg,and fat .25g/kg and most importantly water, aim for 4liters .Ramadan diet should look something like this:
Iftar: 30g of oats (raw measured) cooked with glass of skim milk, 2 egg whites and whole egg, a glass of fresh juice,2 pcs dates, cup of green tea Pre-workout: 200g chopped fruits with half cup yoghurt and 8pcs of almonds
Dinner: A cup of brown rice with 200 g grilled chicken and bowl of fresh salad with 1tsp of olive oil dressing.
Sohur: 200g baked/grilled fish (salmon or snapper preferable) with lot of steamed /boiled vegetable, 150g of cottage cheese.
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Always start with dynamic stretches Body weight squat: 1 set 20 reps Lunges: 1 set 20 reps on each leg Pushups: 1 set till failure Chin-ups (if available): 1 set till failure Sit-ups : 1 set 20 reps Side planks: 30 sec on each side Bench dip: 1 set 20reps Do 3-4 complete circuits depending on your fitness level.
There is almost inevitable binge eating during Eid holidays. What is your advice to avoid those or manage the weight gain after? During holidays, people make the transition from fast to feast be it breakfast, supper or lunch and dine lavishly inviting all the perils of binge eating. Eating so much can cause medical problems starting from upset stomach to increased cholesterol and blood sugar level to uncontrolled weight gain. You will also experience a wide range of depressive symptoms such as guilt, lack of energy, depression, bowel irritability and poor concentration. It is important to remember that after fasting regularly for a month, the gut function decreases as the body adapts to a new eating pattern and digesting a huge amount of food suddenly is quite burdensome for one’s alimentary system. Try to have a strategy before you
start to eat during the Eidholidays-always start with two glasses of water and eat salad before the main courses. Salad is a good appetizer and at the same time it satiates, eventually controlling the urge to succumb into binge eating. For anyone who suffers from binge eating, avoiding laxative is important. Also don’t go on any crash diet, because that can spell disaster for your health. Rule of thumb: go back to the basic healthy balance diet and proper training methods that is backed by science.
The author is a certified nutritionist, fitness consultant and the owner of Ruslan’s Studio, a nutrition and fitness center
cars
Top 10
ICE Business Times took a look back and came up with the most exciting cars of this year for its lovers of top gear!
HOT ON WHEELS
OF15 20
By Kazi Rahatul Zannat
01. Lamborghini Huracan
The Huracan is one of the supercars of 2015. She is capable of 202 mph and running from zero to 60 mph in an estimated 2.9 seconds.The pricing starts at more than $240,000 and is powered by a 602-hp, 5.2-liter V-10.
The caewoefully ineffective at killing bugs. She looks like a shark made out of polygons, the trademark Lamborghini-ish sexy look, although her edges and points are not as sharp as its family, the Aventador. Her smooth skin and underlying structure are mainly made of aluminum. What has pushed the car a few notches up is the use of carbon fiber in the rear bulkhead, center tunnel, and portions of the B-pillars.The carbon-fiber pieces are glued,
baked, and riveted into the aluminum structure. The composite accounts for a 10-percent weight reduction and is part of a 50-percent increase in rigidity. She has a brilliant 5.2-liter V-10 engine, which makes 50 more horsepower than the Gallardo LP560-4’s, or 52 more than the version in the current Audi R8 V-10 Plus.Huracan has dual-fuel-injection system and revised intake deserve, which are the big trick behind her extra power. The car has
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02.
got direct- and port-fuel-injection systems, which work to cut emissions, add power, and improve fuel economy. The Huracán comes exclusively with a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic. The driver can select gears, or, if left in automatic mode, with the paddle shifters; the transmission will try its best to keep you in the correct gear with the least fuel consumption. When it’s turning at its 8500-rpm redline, the V-10 sounds like Pavarotti gargling premium. The interior of the Huracan is an exclusive beauty, a mix of the exotic and the practical. Inspired by the ’67 Lambo Marzal, a hexagon-themed concept car, the cockpit has a retro flavor. Hex-shaped vents sit atop the flat dash and match the six-sided instrument cluster, which houses a 12.3-inch TFT screen that can be configured to show a tachometer, speedometer, audio, phone, and navigation maps and directions. All in all, the Huracan is one of the cars to watch out for this year.
Ferrari LaFerrari LaFerrari is a limited series car, of which only a few will be made during the next two years. At the centre of the car, behind its two fixed carbonfiber seats, sits a 6262cc naturally aspirated V12 engine that generates 790bhp at 9000rpm and 516lb ft of torque at 6750rpm. Again, behind and beneath the seats sits a 60kg lithium ion battery pack which, via a 25.7kg electric motor, provides a further 160bhp and 199lb ft to give combined outputs of 950bhp and 715lb ft. Its power unit has been designed to produce its maximum outputs all of the time. There is no e-mode that can be engaged as such. Her combustion engine and the Hy-KERS system have been engineered to work as one, which constantly saves the energy while on cruise (via the brakes, the ABS system, the traction control system and the E-Diff) to deliver full beans, as in 950bhp, whenever you want it. The energy thus produced is then sent to the rear wheels only, through a seven-speed dual clutch auto gearbox. It has an electric motor attached to it, with a gear-set that transmits drive directly to the final drive, reducing the need for a typically vast clutch. The car has a carbonfiber tub on to which the engine and suspension are mounted. At each corner there are double wishbones (carbonfiber at the front) and coil springs with electronically controlled dampers, and a humongous carbon-ceramic disc brake, those at the front measuring 398mm, those at the rear 380mm.Wings at the front and rear are actively deployed on the cruise to provide two different running configurations; high and low downforce modes. The driving position has got the driver’s backside sitting at broadly the same height as their toes. The steering is surprisingly light but with an old school kind of feel. The brake pedal also feels light underfoot. And the throttle response is just outrageous; the car explodes even on half throttle in fourth gear, as a result of integrating electric power with a thumping great V12. At low revs the electricity provides the torque instantly, and from there on up – at about 3000rpm – the V12 takes over.
Ferrari LaFerrari specifications: Price €1.2m (approx £1.15 million) 0-62mph Sub-3.0sec (claimed) Top speed “Above 217mph" Economy na; CO2 333g/km Kerb weight 1255kg (dry), 1345kg (approx) with fluids Engine V12, 6262cc, petrol plus electric motors; Power 950bhp at 9000rpm; Torque 715lb ft at 6750rpm; Compression ratio 13.5.0:1
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03.
Jaguar XJ
XJ has a beautifully designed cabin and comes with loads of luxury equipment. She has two supercharged petrol engines – a 335bhp 3.0 V6 and a 503bhp 5.0 V8, which can hauling her to 60mph in just 6.0 seconds, and it’s more relaxing to drive than either of the petrols. XJ has got accurate steering, which makes it easy to place the car with pinpoint precision. Drawback is a firm low-speed ride. You will get a gentle chatter from the diesel engine at idle, but on hard acceleration, just more than a low grumble from the twin exhaust pipes.After settling on tje move, only the lower numbers on the rev counter mark it out from the petrol-engined cars, which are also silky smooth. The Jaguar XJ does kick up a bit more road noise than a Mercedes S-Class, so it’s not as hushed on the motorway.
04.
08.
Porsche Macan Turbo
This car was introduced to the press as “a Porsche through and through”, as if there were any question that a 4x4 was not also capable of being a Porsche. The car has new sheetmetal and aluminum clamshell hood. The Macan's greeanhouse seems to be a bit shrunken than the Q5, featuring roughly two inches shorter in height. The car has huge wheels and 295/35-sized tires. The turbo V-6 pulls hard all the way to its 6800-rpm redline, though above 5000, the engine is more groaning than singing; a Porsche aria is not part of the Macan’s entertainment package. The Macan Turbo has a base price of $73,295, while the Macan S, which also happens to be turbocharged, starts at $50,895.
Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat
It takes 80 horsepower just to the car's supercharger only, which can suck the air from a 10-by-13-foot room in one minute. Its fuel injectors can fill a pint glass in six seconds; it produces 707 horsepower and 650 lb-ft of torque. It is a five-seat supercar capable of hitting 60 mph in 3.6 seconds and passing the quarter-mile in 11.7 seconds at 126 mph, with a claimed top speed of 199 mph. Dodge says it can get on to 60 mph in 3.7 seconds on its way to an NHRA-certified quarter-mile at 11 seconds flat (on street tires), with a top speed of 204 mph. Everytime you press on the paddle, the car will create fits of coughing and gasping. Although XJ is pretty cool for the tracks, it’s not a ‘track car.’ The car's springs and shocks are softer, the anti-roll bars aren’t quite thick, and the amount of slip allowed by the traction and stability control is recalibrated. The Hellcat has the allowance for the four-door’s longer wheelbase, stated 4575-pound curb weight, and its 56/44 versus 57/43 weight distribution.The car has got comfortable sharp turn-in and tidy, predictable body motions. It always drives big, since with a wheelbase of 120.4 inches, it is big, but the steering—hydraulically assisted for the Hellcat. Powering hard out of the curves, the rear end breaks away gradually and predictably yet is easily catchable with a bit of opposite lock. Driven smoothly, this is not spooky cat, but wild for fun for sure.
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06.
05.
Mazda MX 5 Miata
This new car is dimensionally quite close to the 1990 Miata and smaller than the outgoing versio, equipped with the largest 17-inch wheels and the U.S.-spec 2.0-liter inline-four-cylinder engine, weighing only 2309 pounds. It is 155-pound lighter than carbon-fiber Alfa Romeo 4C, which used to be the lightest new car on the market. Downsizing has not harmed cabin roominess, instead has improved from the last MX-5, even if Mazda’s interior measurements don’t show that. A new seat design closer to the floor and reclines a bit more opens the Miata’s fitment to larger people and allows more space to stretch out. The heavy but smooth shifter is ideally positioned; the narrowly spaced pedals are perfectly aligned underneath the thin, small-diameter wheel. This fourth-generation MX-5 have the most comfortable and highest performing cockpit of any Miata. A lighter flywheel and tuning for premium gasoline (recommended but not required) make it quicker to rev with improved throttle response, which means the new MX-5 feels a lot like the original 1.6-liter Miata—though a whole lot quicker, recording a 5.9-second sprint to 60 mph and 16.2 seconds to 100. The drawback of MX 5 is, as the boisterous intake noise drowns out the exhaust and makes the new car louder under acceleration than any Miata that has come before. Mazda switched from hydraulic to electric assist. The wheel has a strong on-center feel, and it takes some effort to initiate turn-in, force builds proportionately on dialing in the effort. This change makes the car feel more planted than before, although there’s plenty of lean in turns, just as in previous Miatas. The price of A base 2016 Mazda MX-5 Miata Sport is around $25,735.
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BMW M4
The M4 is honestly a large car! M-series coupé is some 4671mm long, featuring a 53mm increase over the departing M3 coupé. It’s also 180mm longer than the generation before that, the E46, and 326mm longer than the original E30 M3. Equipped with the optional M DCT seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission, which is a claimed 40kg heavier than the six-speed manual gearbox that is standard, the car is 52 per cent biased over its nose, and a 3.0-litre straight six engine with two turbochargers resides there. The power is up from 414bhp to 425bhp, while torque rises from 295lb ft to a fairly whopping 406lb ft. Fitting in two turbochargers has increased the natural lethargy of the M4’s six-cylinder engine - M4 has two small turbos rather than one big one, both single-scroll units. Twin-scroll turbos split exhaust gases from the cylinders until they reach the turbine, It rockets off the line, hitting 62mph in just 4.1 seconds and quickly onto a limited top speed of 155mph. The car has a low-slung, muscular stance which sets it apart; there are three big air dams that span the width of the car underneath the BMW kidney grille and flattened headlamps, the low bonnet and flared wheel arches make the M4 even more eye-catching. The M4 is an amazing drive when the suspension and throttle are put in their most performance-focused settings. The grip is really hard but without any understeer. The steering can be adjusted weighting to suit conditions, but is best left in Comfort, which delivers more than enough refinement The M$ costs of £7,267, which is £992 less than for the Audi RS5 and a five-year 50,000 miles plan will set you back £1,000.
07.
Chevrolet Corvette
A coupe and a convertible - both flow through corners and have ridiculous stick, and there’s no discernible handling difference between the two. The car has 6.2-liter supercharged V-8, with 650 horsepower and 650 lb-ft of torque pushing 3613 pounds. There are eight gears in this automatic, which are more than enough. A zero-to-60 run takes 3.1 seconds, a tenth behind our previous test of an automatic coupe. The car’s initial launch—1.3 seconds to 30 mph—is unbelievably quick for a rear-driver. Carbon-ceramic rotors are part of the Z07 package, working flawlessly in conjunction with the Michelin rubber. On warm tires, the Corvette digs into the earth while the ABS pumps away. Off the track, the Z06 convertible behaves much like the coupe. With the top up, the small rear window restricts visibility, noise levels are low considering the wide tires and the throbbing V-8. Dropping the top remedies any visibility and claustrophobia problems. But what’s really great about any convertible is rolling the top back, listening to the exhaust, and experiencing the freedom of ground-bound flight.
10.
Ferrari 458
597 horsepower and 398 lb-ft of torque from the naturally aspirated 4.5-liter V-8 - yes, that is Ferrari 458! A 14:1 compression ratio, a new manifold and airbox rendered from carbon fiber, higher lift for the intake and exhaust valves, new pistons, and reworked intake runners and ports have the credit for the power increase. The gearbox is a revised seven-speed dual-clutch automatic with shifts very quickly. Ferrari estimates that the car will rocket to 62 mph in three seconds flat. The car also has the Speciale’s advanced aerodynamic features, including a flap ahead of the front fascia’s Ferrari logo that sends air under the car to create more rear downforce at high speeds. The doors up front open above 105 mph to divert air from the radiators and through vanes at the corners of the car. The regular Spider’s three-tip central exhaust becomes a pair of wider-set cannons, accommodating a big rear diffuser and a motor-actuated drag-reduction setup, which helps the underside of the rear end to help achieve Vmax.
09.
Lamborghini Urus The Urus is a super-SUV.
It has a sporty rig focused on pavement heroics rather than off-road chops.The car has wide headlights illuminated by LED clusters and accented with Y-shaped LED light tubes. The fascia is dominated by large intakes. It also and features a variable-height carbon-fiber splitter that can raise up and out of the way, providing clearance. Urus’s coupe-like roofline isn’t just for the visual; the car’s lid sits a mere 65.4 inches from the pavement. An air suspension provides up to 3.5 inches of additional height when the Urus’s lowness conflicts. The 24-inch wheels are ludicrously huge. The Urus has a wildly designed interior, four bucket seats straddle one of the coolest center tunnels; the angular, cross-braced hump is rendered in Lamborghini’s unique forged composite material - made of ground-up carbon-fiber chips and resin
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CORPORATE DRUDGERY
The Fallacy of Work-Life Balance The world’s worst curse and the never-ending balancing act of work and life. Here is why we need to remove the pivot from the see-saw.
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By Kazim Ibn Sadique A couple of days ago there was a heated discussion at office regarding whether “May you live in interesting times” is a curse or not. The phrase – supposedly Chinese in origin – has been used by everyone from Robert Kennedy to the xkcd web-comic site. Kennedy referred to it as a curse while xkcd - in truly defiant fashion – decided an adventure is the calling of the hour. Regardless of which side you take, generally after these sort of debates, there is a train of thought that leads to the dreaded bane of HR managers everywhere – the
topic of work-life balance. The phrase “work-life balance” can loosely be termed as a common misconception. Not because it doesn’t exist in the colloquial meaning of the word our corporate lives definitely allow the existence of some balance between work and life, no matter how vehemently we like to pretend otherwise to our bosses – but because it treats work and life as two distinctly separate things. And while we continue to do that, us corporate Jedis will never be able to bring
balance to the force. Consider first a 9-5 job; then admit to yourself that you never truly get out of the office by 5 and make it a bit more realistic 9-7 job. Factor in the Dhaka traffic - which adds a minimum of two hours each day for commuting to and from work and you are basically working 60 hours each week. Taking out the 7 hours of sleep that a healthy adult human needs to function properly, you are spending more than half of your waking hours each week at
TAKE A BREAK formula of birth – studies – love – work – marriage – kids – retirement – death. We are all seeking the break in that mighty chain, because We have had as kids we thought we dreams of were born to conquer being the world. And travellers, perhaps we could’ve, fashion but we chose things, designers, safe things. And now writers, entrepreneurs, we are here, sitting at musicians. a desk, staring at laptop screens running endless tabs of excel with multiple scenarios There is a commonly based on our plans and our quoted phrase that says, competitors plans and adding “Choose to do something subtle and tasteful animations to you love and you will never PowerPoint presentations, work a day in your life.” It is making sure the commentary on the slides is appropriately arguably one of worst detailed/not-detailed considering career advices ever given. the audience while the colours are representative of the message and the slides don’t work. And that’s including the look too busy with all the charts weekends. and diagrams and graphical Building that number a little representation of strategy that further and assuming a 60 year we have painstakingly built, life expectancy (don’t disagree which will be forgotten the with the assumption until you moment the scenario changes well and truly quit smoking and and the plan is put on hold. get on that healthy diet) one We are afraid that like those fourth of your waking life is plans, we have put our lives on spent at work. Yes, that includes hold. all the time from your first And the truth is, we haven’t. scream announcing your arrival We have had dreams of being on the grandest of stages to the travellers, fashion designers, first time you learned to ride a writers, entrepreneurs, bike to all those hours spent at musicians. There is a commonly school, bunking classes at university, falling in love, getting quoted phrase that says, “Choose to do something you love and married, having kids and even you will never work a day in the 30 vacations you now get your life.” It is arguably one of each year.The worst part? Most worst career advices ever given. of the free time is gone already The basic reason most of us because you spent it in the first work is for money, barring those 25 years of your life. few who don’t have to worry It is natural to be little about money and work because anxious. In fact, it is alright to they are bored and it gives them be downright freaked out. It is something to do. Some might perfectly normal to ask yourself, argue that they are in it to build is this it? Is this all the time I a legacy, and if you truly are, have? Everybody wants to be then you have bigger fish to fry unique and nobody ever than worrying about the amount imagines their life to follow the
Worst
of time spent at work. The moment your paycheck depends on what you do, it becomes work, regardless of whether you love it or not. And the moment it becomes work, it goes beyond a certain mental barrier. A writer needs to come up with new ideas, break writers’ block, find a muse and abstain from procrastination to churn out edible material for the voracious readers. An athlete has to maintain a strict regimen of fitness and train constantly and continuously to deliver good performance and remain relevant. Does any of this sound familiar? The human capacity for thought, for imagination is astounding. We are also equally astonishing in our ability to desire that which we do not have. In glorifying our past and what may have been, we lose out on our lives. Dreams are after all the true siren call that we all face. Should we not chase them? Of course we should. It is what makes us human. But to rather childishly quote a wizard in a business magazine, “It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.” There is a Greek myth about a king called Sisyphus who tried to trick the gods into becoming immortal. So the gods punished him by making him immortal and trapping him in a world with a hill and a rock. Sisyphus pushed the rock up the hill and every time he neared the top, the rock would fall back down and he would have to begin again. There was no reward, no end to the punishment if he managed to take the rock to the top. Albert Camus wrote an essay on Sisyphus and said one must imagine Sisyphus to be happy, because there is joy in the struggle and it is better than an eternity with nothing. Luckily we have something more than rocks for company. We have other humans making their way up the hill. Why not reach out to those fellow strugglers? We have colleagues, but maybe we would be better off if we could call them friends. How about we build a culture out of what seems to be a cage. Because at the end of the day, that’s one fourth of your life slipping away and if you can’t add a little bit of color and animation to it, it will continue to be as drab as those guidebooks you receive at training courses. So why don’t you knock the person in the next cubicle and take a coffee break right about now?
You are basically working hours each week!
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WORD OF MOUTH
Le Méridien Dhaka celebrates ramadan with children of Baitul Aman Housing Society Madrasah & Orphanage
Escape to an exclusive weekend getaway this Eid-ul-Fitr with family and friends at Dhaka Regency with its signature Eid Weekend Package. Designed to pamper and rejuvenate, the Eid weekend package offers access to the distinctive hotel services and amenities. This luxury and relaxing package is offered only to local residents up to 2 adults and 2 children aged below 12 years with one night accommodation at Regency Studio only at the cost of BDT 8,999 (all inclusive) per night. Guests will enjoy the complimentary Buffet Breakfast, Lunch or Dinner at its Grandiose Restaurant, one of the largest 24-hour multi-cuisine 5-star restaurants, truly offering food for your every mood. Other exclusive facilities include access to Regency’s state-of-the art health club with the latest GYM installments, swimming pool, Steam and Sauna. 20% discount at Juvenex Spa is also there to elevate your weekend with a more relaxing respite. Please call at 01713332611 to confirm your booking for a fun-filled and startling Eid weekend since the offer will be valid from July 18 – 31, 2015.
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Le Méridien Dhaka, city’s newest and largest upscale hotel, recently hosted a celebratory iftar mehfil with the children of Baitul Aman Housing Society Madrasah & Orphanage. Honourable Minister, Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism Rashed Khan Menon presided over the event as Chief Guest to bless the young guests along with hotel’s Chairman Amin Ahmed and General Manager Ashwani Nayar. Also present were Honourable Secretary to the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism Khurshed Alam Chowdhury as Special Guest among various dignitaries of the ministry. While it has been less than a full month since the soft opening of the hotel, the period of Holy Ramadan offered a good opportunity for the organisation to contribute to the community. Le Méridien Dhaka catered to the little guests the way it knows best – with uncompromising service. The hotel’s management team divided among the 200 children of the welfare home to give them undivided attention and share stories that may encourage the youths to greater heights of inspiration. “It is a very encouraging beginning for Le Méridien Dhaka to be able to share these happy moments with these beautiful children,” informs Nayar. “Our target guests are in fact the curious and the creative-minded, and who is more curious or creative-minded than a child. Children inspire us to do better and I hope today, with what little time we spent with them, we were able to inspire these children also.”
Hot Deals to Celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr at Dhaka Regency: Eid Weekend Package
WORD OF MOUTH
UltraTech Foresees Bigger Bazaar in Bangladesh EGM & 33rd AGM of AB Bank Limited Took Place
AB Bank Limited approved 12.5% Stock Dividend for its shareholders at the 33rd Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Bank held on May 17, 2015 (Sunday) at the Bashundhara Convention Centre-2, Dhaka. The AGM approved the Annual Report and the Audited Financial Statements of the Bank for the year ended 2014. Earlier an Extra-Ordinary General Meeting (EGM) of the Bank was held on the same day at 9.00 am at the same venue. A Special Resolution was approved in the EGM for issuance of ‘AB Bank Subordinated Bond-II’ of BDT 400.00 crore for raising Tier-II Capital subject to approval of the concerned Regulatory Authorities. AB Bank Limited completed its 33rd year of successful banking on April 12, 2015. Net Asset Value (NAV) stood at Tk.1,876 crore in 2014 which is 8% higher than 2013. Total Asset of the Bank stood at Tk.25,681 crore at the end of 2014 reflecting a growth of 22% over last The 33rd AGM was presided over by the Chairman of the Bank, M. Wahidul Haque. Other Directors and the President & Managing Director Shamim A. Chaudhury were also present. A good number of shareholders, patrons and well-wishers attended the Annual General Meeting.
UltraTech cement, a premium brand of Emirates Cements Bangladesh Ltd, aims to strengthen its foothold in Bangladesh and entered into an agreement with Select Marketing, a pioneer in promoting industrial products to major institutional and corporate business houses of Bangladesh. B.K. Singh Head of Sales & Marketing of Emirates Cement Bangladesh Limited and Shafin Ahmed of band Miles & Chief Executive Officer of Select Marketing exchange documents of an agreement at a city hotel this evening. Gautam Chatterjee, Country Manager of Emirates Cement Bangladesh Limited and Syed Arif Ali, Sr. GM, Emirates Cement Bangladesh were also present along with dignitaries of the Construction world & corporate houses of Bangladesh. Select Marketing a premiere business house of Bangladesh, will promote sales of UltraTech Cement to various Institutional and Corporate cement consumers in Bangladesh. Having one of the most modern and state of the art Cement Grinding facilities at East Mukterpur in Munshiganj district, Emirates Cement Bangladesh Limited started marketing UltraTech Brand across Bangladesh in the year 2011 and has witnessed consistent growth year after year. UltraTech is known for its consistent superior quality with proven higher strength of above 6000 PSI with Technical support and on time delivery, is making inroads pan Bangladesh markets. Having played a pivotal role with contributions in the mega structures in the sub-continent primarily India, UAE, Bahrain and Sri Lanka, UltraTech is poised to contribute a significant role in the construction sector of Bangladesh. Select Marketing with its core experience in industrial marketing is now going to play a key role in promotion of UltraTech among various leading corporate and institutional clients across the country.
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