Biz Letters
Need for a young entrepreneurs' chamber
The Dhaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) celebrated the auspicious occasion of its golden jubilee recently. The fiftieth anniversary of this business body comes at a time when the global economy is suffering beyond the imagination. DCCI needs more experience to deal with the present economic turmoil.
Now the real question is, what DCCI could really achieve in the last 50 years. Has it successfully achieved something great in the last fifty years that can convince us that DCCI really played significant roles in eliminating poverty from our society? Or has the DCCI played roles in securing jobs for the young entrepreneurs? Has the DCCI contributed to establishing business opportunities for women?
In our country we have too many trade bodies. A person in need of business help does not really have any clue as to where to go for the right information. The young people who want to do business are especially neglected. We always talk about helping the young generation but we do not come forward when a young person wants to establish a business on his own. This is not at all a good sign. Over the years, our young generation proved that they are brilliant and, if given the right opportunities, they can overcome and achieve anything. We have seen how our Buet students invented robots, how a boy from a poor family can create electricity without fuel by not having any proper academic education, and how the young boys of Jinjira can create machinery without having any engineering degrees.
Therefore, I will be glad if our government can establish a fruitful trade body where young people will be benefited in establishing businesses on their own, instead of organising meeting after meeting, and instead of making big promises that can never be achieved. So, I propose establishing Young Entrepreneurs Chamber of Commerce and Industry (YECCI).
Minhaj Ahmed Dhaka
Alarming fake notes
It is alarming news for every body that fake notes are available in towns, hats, bazaars and changing hands unknowingly across the country. The latest models of computers, laptops and colour printers are the main tools to make fake notes. A section of unscrupulous people are engaged in such devastating activities.
Sometimes law enforcing agencies are catching them red-handed. But their activities are yet to be controlled. It seems that the number of fake note producers is not trifle. They trained up a new generation, like the pick picketers.
In the ancient era, people used to exchange commodities for buying and selling purposes. But at present, paper notes are the only form of exchange. The fake notes are made so accurately that many fail to identify those.
On November 6, Rab-2 nabbed a fake note maker at Mirpur in Dhaka. This kind of news is not new. Several times a year, we get such news. But the result seems to be zero. Perhaps, the hooligans are freed through the loopholes of the law. To eliminate such acts, the government should introduce stringent laws. Fake notes are destroying the national economy. So, some initiatives should be taken. The government should engage a special team to take out fake notes from the markets, shopping malls, hats, and bazaars. They should ensure death sentence for the culprits. They must arrange and build up awareness programmes, and book all computers, laptops and colour printers under a registration system.
MZ Haider
Narsingdi
Focusing on business and opportunities in South America
The people of the marketing world are well acquainted with the name of Al Ries, who is without any hesitation, one of the world's best-known marketing consultants. He, along with his daughter, Laura Ries, established their own marketing consultancy firm Ries & Ries and works with many Fortune 500 companies.
In explaining a company's growth and success, Al Ries states in his book, Focus, that “The sun is a powerful source of energy. Every hour the sun washes the earth with billions of kilowatts of energy. Yet with a hat and some sunscreen you can bathe in the light of the sun for hours at a time with few ill effects. A laser is a weak source of energy. A laser takes a few watts of energy and focuses them in a coherent stream of light. But with a laser you can drill a hole in a diamond or wipe out a cancer. When you focus a company, you create the same effect. You create a powerful, laser like ability to dominate a market. That's what focusing is all about. When a company becomes unfocused, it loses its power.”
Ries has rightly pointed out the truth that if a company wants to get the real taste of success then that company has to be focused. Derivation from focus will surely lead the company to devastating consequences. This is what most of our local business firms fail to understand. They tend to diversify their business in different sectors rather than focusing on its original one. By focusing on its core business, a business organisation can definitely make a substantial amount of profit. All it needs is to focus on its main business and implement strategies to outclass competitors.
The reason why we need to be focused is because, by focusing on one particular business sector, the management has insurmountable odds of time to think and re-think about that existing business and has plenty of ideas and opportunities in implementing strategies in order to stay strong in the market.
This is what our local firms need to do right now. Those industries that are well established in the banking sector should only focus on this sector and continuously think of new ideas to overtake competitors. Those who are involved in pharmaceutical industry or toiletries industry or even food and beverage industry should consistently knock for lucrative ideas in order to penetrate the market in aggressive ways. By focusing on its core business the missions and visions of the company can easily be conspicuous. Audacious steps can then be taken in order to reach the apex of success.
Recently, media tycoon Rupert Murdoch said the ongoing growth of China and India from historic backwaters into economic powers will help reshape the world in the next few decades. China and India are great countries whose people are only recently emerging from long histories of being "incarcerated by communism or caste". The rise of their economies is creating a new middle class that would be three billion strong within 30 years and that is setting a new benchmark for global competitiveness.
Bangladesh is far behind both China and India. But this does not mean that we should be like this forever. Our economy is getting stronger amidst financial crisis in the first world countries. Our people are also hard working and if they are given chances, they can emerge equally as competitive as people from any parts of the globe. Therefore, Bangladeshi local companies should be focused in its business to thrive globally.
And it is true that if we look at our global export position then we have a real dismal scenario when we see our small margin of export to South America. South American countries are not at all nurtured well. There is a tremendous export opportunity to the countries of South America. I really do not have any clue why our Export Promotion Bureau does not organise trade fairs in this region. Most of the South American countries import various types of commodities such as road vehicles, consumer goods, tobacco, petroleum products, electrical machinery, tractors, chemicals, and vehicle parts form different countries.
Our government can even encourage the businesspeople of the entire Dholaikhal area to produce quality and affordable vehicles and export those to these South American countries. Apart from this, other industries can also come forward to diversify their export market and make a name in the world. It is time for our Export Promotion Bureau to look into these matters to export Bangladeshi products to the neglected countries of South America.
Minhaj Ahmed Dhaka
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