Shaer Hassan

বেঁচে থাকার আনন্দ

2012-02-16T15:38:00.001+06:00

নব্বই-এর কোনো এক বিকেল। আমি বিমানের আভ্যান্তরীণ ফ্লাইটে উঠে বসেছি। আইলের পাশে সিট আমার। বিমান রানওয়ে ছেড়ে ওঠার পরে তখন ধূমপান করা যেত।

হঠাৎ দেখি পরিচিত মুখ ওপাশ থেকে হেঁটে আসছে। স্যান্ডেল পরা, ছেড়ে দেওয়া সাদা সার্ট, হাতা কনুই পর্যন্ত গোটানো। বিমানে সচারচর এরকম সাধারণ পোষাকে সেইসময়ে মানুষ চড়ত না। কিন্তু মানুষটা সাধারণ নন। হুমায়ূন ফরিদী।

আইলের ওধারে এসে সে বসল। একটা সিগারেট ধরালো। সহযাত্রী, তার পরিচিত, ধূমপান বিষয়ে কিছু বলল। “ডাক্তার বলেছে, সিগারেট না ছাড়লে বাঁচব না”, ফরিদী বললেন, “আমি বলেছি, সিগারেট ছাড়লে বেঁচে কী লাভ?”

কুড়ি বছর আগের ঘটনা। ফরিদীকে অবশেষে সিগারেট ছাড়তে হল। সেই সাথে বাঁচাটাও।

তাঁর মত অসাধারণ এদেশে বেঁচে থেকেই বা কী লাভ করত? হয় প্যাকেজ নাটক বানাও, সোপ অপেরা, নয়ত বিজ্ঞাপন বানাও। পেটে ক্ষুধা নিয়ে সংস্কৃতির গুষ্টি উদ্ধার কর, অথবা অপসংস্কৃতির দাসত্ব কর। ফরিদী শেষেরটা বেছে নিয়েছিলেন। কিন্তু সেটা করতে গিয়ে হয়তো তিনি বেঁচে থাকার আনন্দটাই হারিয়ে ফেলেছিলেন।

আমি অভিনয় বিশেষজ্ঞ নই। তবে ফরিদীকে কেন জানি আমার ডাস্টিন হফম্যানের মত মনে হয়। জায়গা মত জন্মালে নির্ঘাৎ এক জোড়া অস্কার জিতে নিতেন।

আল্লাহ তাঁর আত্মাকে শান্তি দিক।

What happened is happened, why can’t we move forward?

2012-01-17T13:26:00.001+06:00

Couple of weeks ago I met one of my relatives who was actively involved in Chhatro Shibir, a student politics wing of Jamaat-e-Islam. Many of the leaders of Jamaat-e-Islam supported West Pakistan during 1971 liberation war in Bangladesh.

My relative was born after 1971, same like me. He showed his frustration of recent war crime trial and oppression of ruling party on Islamic activists and madrasah students. “What happened 40 years back, is happened. Why can’t we move forward?”

I thought he was a good guy in heart, but had a different view. I thought it was easy to comment, “ What happened is happened,” while you or any of your family was not directly affected. I thought if I killed your family and after 40 years ask you to forget and move ahead, you couldn’t. I thought if someone’s entire family except him is murdered, you can’t expect him to think rationally. I thought we can’t go ahead unless we resolve old issues. I thought precedence of justice is necessary to build an atmosphere of trust and brotherhood. It thought righteousness, law and order is a prerequisite for business and prosperity.

A killing ground in Dhaka during 1971 genocide, that killed 300,000 or more.

Recently I read an article where Pakistani cricketer Imran Khan voiced a similar concern. Past unresolved issue hinders future progress. It is true for Pakistan. It is true for Bangladesh. It is true for individuals.

You can’t live, love and move ahead with hatred in your heart.

God wants us to use technology

2011-12-06T19:01:00.000+06:00

Whatever are essential for human race to survive and grow are abundant in the nature. The most available and free resource on the earth is air, which is absolutely free, without need of any effort to collect. That’s the most important ingredient for us to live. The second most valuable thing for us is water. This is also fairly available, but not as much as air is. After all that’s the second most required ingredient for us to survive. The list can go down to carbohydrate, to protein, to fat, to mineral, to cotton, to silk and so on.

How about the least most important element for us to live? Diamond? This is mostly used as ornament, as a luxury item. Unsurprisingly extremely rare. Uranium, or gold for example. Not that essential, not that abundant either. Iron, on the other hand, is very essential mineral. Moderately available too. And iron is recyclable.

How about electronic goods? The hardware those are required to push the civilization in this information age? Elements of information technology? Ingredients to make silicon chips? Hmmm, they are fairly abundant, too.

So, I was thinking on the other day, maybe God wants us to use technology. It was all in His plan, I guess.

Well, I am just suggesting. Think about it!

Entrepreneurship is like painting: Interview of Richard Branson

2011-07-16T17:53:00.001+06:00

Here is the bullet point take away from the 40 min rendezvous with Sir Richard Branson.

Entrepreneurship is an art. Painting on a huge canvas, filling up the blanks and combining the bits and pieces. Similar thought was expressed by Mohammad Yunus recently. He said there is no legal relationship among the different concerns named as Grameen and founded by him. He just had to build different ventures to fill the gaps. And here Richard founded 300+ businesses under Virgin group to fill in the blanks on his canvas. A ‘wow’ is even an under statement!
Entrepreneurs are not managers, save Steve Jobs. Entrepreneurs should be good at delegation, and move on to grabbing the next opportunity.
The cheapest way of promotion is to make sure you have a good product to talk about.
The inspiring way of promotion is the Chairman to talk about the product from the forefront! Who does it better than Richard Branson and Steve Jobs?
It is an easier and faster way of knowing people in a fun environment than in formal meetings. Joe Polish mentioned form Peter Drucker: “Either you are working, or you are in meeting.” That’s bold! Richard said that he makes sure his employees have fun in work and after. By the way “don’t drink and fly a plane” rule applies to Virgin Airlines, too. No wonder!
Creating business is one of the best ways to solve problems in the modern world. So do think Mohamamd Yunus (Social Business and Creating World without Poverty) and NR Narayana Murthy (A better India: A Better World). For some of the issues, however, business might not work. That’s where Virgin Unite plays role for Richard. For Yunus Social Business works.
Prepare for the worst. That’s the most common preparations startups fail to make. 8 out of 10 fails, remember? Keep and exit strategy handy. Be flexible to sway from your initial plan.
Use modern communication to stay close to your dear ones. That means, stay close physically to your family, and stay connected to your business using technology; as much as is practical. That’s the secret recipe form Richard for work-life balancing.

That’s it! It meant to be bullet point, right?

In case you are hungry for more, go ahead watch the the full video. You might have a different set of take away. If you do, share them on the comment box.

Richard Branson with Marie Forleo, Joe Polish and Yanik Silver on Necker Island talking about entrepreneurship at large.

5 Tips to Build a Successful SaaS Product in Bangladesh

2011-07-01T12:22:00.002+06:00

Form my previous post, Internet Products or SaaS in Bangladesh, it looks like bdjobs is the only celebrated success story in this area.

Why? What is the catch? I think the catch is to

A. Start in time. You start too early, your cash is dried up before you turn the business to a profitable one. You start late, too many players don’t allow you to gain enough customers. Customer acquisition cost shoots up.

Make sure customer acquisition cost is lower than the lifetime value of your customer. Now, what is that? If your total marketing cost (includes sales, marketing & advertising cost) is Tk. 1o lac and if you acquire 1000 paying customers with that money, you per customer acquisition cost is tk. 1000 (=10 lac/1000). On the other hand Customer Lifetime Value is ARPU * Customer’s Average Lifetime. ARPU is Average Revenue Per User (User is synonymous to Customer here). Customer Lifetime is the time a customer stays with you. So, if your product’s subscription charge is Tk. 1000 per year and if a customer stays with you on an average for 3 years. Then your customer’s Lifetime Value is tk. 3000 (= tk. 1000 * 3 yrs). So, you have to make sure Customer Lifetime Value > Customer Acquisition Cost.

Sounds good? But you might like to discount the paybacks and apply the time value of money as well.

B. Start with deep enough pocket to sustain long enough and to acquire enough paying customers to reach break even.

C. Ensure you are strong at both ends: IT and marketing. You have a great IT team, and you think you can build a better product than bdjobs in a couple of months. Great! But do you have the marketing budget and expertise to bite a share from a company with tk. 6.5 cr yearly revenue, or from a group like Transcom (prothom-alojobs)?

Equally important is your IT team. I think Prothom-alojobs could do better had they have an IT team with better know-how in design, usability and performance.

D. Possess business domain expertise and connections. Not for all product it is crucial, but for some for sure. For example you are thinking of building amazon.com in Bangladesh. You need to have connection with publishers, writers and courier services for that matter. Well, you can build those over time, but that turns out to be a fancy idea if already a couple of strong players exists in market.

E. Ensure you have a competitive advantage. Well, it is true for any business. For IT product starting early is a huge competitive advantage. You ride on the network effect. Having a strong brand to piggyback is another advantage that is utilized by Google, Apple and even Prothom-alo in Bangladesh. Strict government regulation can be another one, as enjoyed by baidu.com as opposed to Google in China.

That’s pretty much it. 5 tips delivered as promised :).

So, what are the last words? Last words are This is the time for Bangladesh. I wonder if Akhoni.com has came up with its name from this concept! You delay more only to see some global giant or a tiny Indian company grabs your cherished market left you beholding.

Internet Products or SaaS in Bangladesh

2011-06-30T21:58:00.001+06:00

Recently our team is contemplating on some of the ideas to launch a SaaS (Software as a Service) product or a simple internet product. Some of the successful internet products in Bangladesh I can name are:

bdjobs: job site, successful both commercially and on popularity index. bdjobs registered tk. 65 million yearly revenue last year. Not bad, eh?

prothom-alojobs: a late follower of bdjobs, but piggybacking on its popular Bangla daily, gained some popularity. Its main revenue source is earned from training rather than from job ads.

Somewherein Blog: Started early, and enjoying lion’s share as a Bangla blogging platform. I doubt it generates enough revenue to maintain and sustain global competition. What I presume Somweherein has other business that ensures cash flow. Aawaj and custom software development are two I can think of.

Contenders of somwherein are prothothm-aloblog, Sachalayatan, amarblog, nagorikblog and myriad more. Obviously they are not commercially interesting.

Champs21 launched with big budget and huge media hype leveraging on its partner The Daily Star. I am sure they are generating some revenue. One thing is good that they did not offer free from the beginning, thus following model of lean startup. Sure Champs21 is yet to recover its investment, but that’s fine. You don’t expect to reach break even in the first year of your launching.

KhanAcademyBangla developed by Nascenia in partnership with the world famous Khan Academy is yet to launch commercially. The content is great and licensed under creative commons, but they are yet to come up with a business model.

Stockbangladesh is hugely popular, at least it was during the heydays of share business. Stockbangladesh earns revenue from advertisement only. Not a very sustainable model, I would say. It probably leverages its popularity to sell trainings and other stock related products to business organizations. OMO is such a product.

A second most popular stock related product is bdipo. Nascenia is the developer an owner of it. It gets revenue from ad and subscription through Freemium model. No, not really a commercially lucrative product yet.

The Ebay model is followed by CellBazaar (acquired by Telenor) and Clickbd. Both are strong players and show all the signs to sustain and make a successful business. Cellbazaar being the partner of Grameenphone sure has edge over others, and sure generates some revenue from mobile platform. Clickbd on the other hand, being a Bangladeshi company, is in an advantageous position regarding issues related to government regulation, permission and expansion.

The very recent addition is akhoni.com selling online discount coupons. Wannabe Groupon in Bangladesh. Stellar start. Time will say how long they need to hang around before becoming next bdjobs.

There are many news sites those are among the top hit site in Bangladesh. They are far more popular than most of the sites I mentioned above. I am confused if I should mention them, as they are more of sites and less of internet product. Especially those who ride over their print editions (e.g. prothom-alojobs, thedailystar, newage). The first notable purely digital news site is bdnews 24.com. The followers are banglanews24 -- created by the mighty and (in)famous Basundhara group and sheershanews.

Is that all? Of course not, but these are the names come up top of mind (ToM) of mine and sure many more like me.

Stay tuned to catch up more about SaaS.

Bumpy Road of a Startup

2010-11-05T21:27:00.004+06:00

It's a continuous high and low. We receive an award on one moment, an important client becomes non-responsive on the next. We get a nod from a major client, one of our engineers leaves for a multinational on the next. If you like roller coster ride, bungee jumping, adrenaline rush, horror film or something of that sort, you gotta love the ride on a startup.

No guarantee of a paycheck at the end of the month, you punch your ATM card not to see the account is topped up by an invisible one. You got to plan for your next dollar, but you never know where it is coming from. Usually it comes from an unusual source. Boy! You gotta love this one.

So, how do you survive these? After all surviving is success for a startup, right?

You must know how to dream. Dream of a glorified future on the expense of the bumpy road ahead. That's the entry barrier to this territory. That's why it is not everybody's cup of tea.

Advertisers, please don't insult us

2010-10-26T13:53:00.001+06:00

I will refer to two of the advertisements published in the recent dailies.

First one is published on The Daily Star on Oct 26 is by Brac Bank. No doubt it is a leading private bank. A bank respected by many, built an image as a pioneer in SME banking. A modern, tech-savvy bank.

The agency responsible for the ad creative is Bitopi, an affiliate of Leo Burnett.

So, what is the problem here? Nowhere it mentioned how much part of the credit card's annual fee would be donated to green fund. So, if at the end of the year Brac Bank pays altogether tk. 2 to green fund, it can certainly claim, it kept its promise. "Hey, we have just donated 0.000000001% of your card's fee to green fund. Be proud of yourself, and your bank." Neither the ad mentions which green fund it is going to donate to. Maybe Brac Bank will plant a sapling in its MD's house. That's a green fund!

However, the ad clearly conveys a message without a mistake. That the advertiser thinks the audience are a bunch of idiots. They will jump into getting the 'green cards' with a big hope that SOME part of the annual fee would be donated to SOME kind of green fund on SOME day. And believe it, this not coming from an ordinary organization. This is coming from a bank, that deals with numbers as its day job.

Now the other one. Also from a bank. Equally revered. Published on Oct 21 on the first page of The Daily Star.

The ad reads:

MTB Centre, A green building.

MTB Center is a unique project with each floor attributed to one of the major energy sources such as trees, water, wind, sun and earth; and these components together define the critical balance of sustainability.

What should I call it? Exploitation of the word Green? Again a bank, that believes in numbers only, did not mention anywhere how the building is energy efficient. Or, how much part of its energy is sourced form alternative or green energy source. In short, how on the world the building is green.

I visited Gulshan to see the building myself. I tried without success to spot any kind of visible solar panels or whatsoever. However, I found a little part of the building is covered with green sticker. Maybe that's how the building is claimed to be Green.

Central Bank's governor a few days back encouraged banks to go green. Look at the responses. I feel like I am a complete idiot. The readers of The Daily Star must be idiots. Prospects and customers of these banks must be idiots.

I am defeated by my 7 year old son

2010-09-22T17:31:00.004+06:00

My 7 year old son, Meesam defeated me last week on a video game. Virtua Cop 2. I've never been able to cross all three levels at one go to face the final boss. I first played VC2 in 1999. I've put a few times more hours in this game than he did. It took Meesam just a month to learn the game and cross all the levels.

Meesam and his sister playing with my Macbook

Is it a sign that he is smarter than I am? Or, am I too dumb not to reach at the end of the game? Or, am I too old (that shouldn't be -- I learned the game while I was 25, now I am 36). Or, is it that children are just like that?

Should I be proud of Meesam? Or, be ashamed of myself? Or, stay indifferent? Any expert opinion?

I keep telling myself: "Welcome, this is only the beginning :)".

Finland Ranked First and Bangladesh 88th by Newsweek

2010-08-28T07:05:00.005+06:00

In the research done by Newsweek on the criteria of health, education, politics and economy – Bangladesh ranked 88th while Finland 1st and USA 11th. Many of us are elated seeing Bangladesh first time ranked in double digit – in whatsoever category, by whatsoever authority. But I am intrigued by some of the comments from the champions. Here is one from some Kalevi supposedly from Finland

One in four people in Finland has to take psychiatric medication just to get through the day. Mood disorders have more than tripled in some population groups during the last decade (this trend is especially noticeable among young adults who have just entered the job market). Finland is also the top fifth most suicidal nation in Europe. But hey, if you want to measure well-being according to such indices as how many cell phones or Internet connections there are per capita, or how many people can read a newspaper or do basic math, then sure, we Finns are the champions of the world. It's just that these supposed indices of well-being do not seem to correlate with happiness in the real world of human beings. In fact, there would rather seem to be a correlation between them and unhappiness.

To really understand the high score of Finland in this and some other studies, you need to know that this is a country that strives to become the perfect living-machine, a society as a machine for efficient living. The general goal is to rationalize every aspect of life, much the same way as labor is rationalized in a McDonald's restaurant, until nothing escapes the standardization and control of the welfare machine. As a result of this pervasive institutionalization (or, indeed, McDonaldization) of Finnish society, life in this country has become increasingly alienating socially. People are generally estranged from their immediate communities, their neighbours and even their own families, and rely on the authorities (experts, professionals) in the most mundane problems of life.

Finnish sociologists conducted a study on people's reactions to school shootings in the U.S. and in Finland, where these “extended suicides” have become increasingly common in recent years. They found to their surprise that while Americans often sought emotional support from their immediate community, their neighbours, colleagues and families, Finns almost never did. What Finns did instead is typical of people living in an advanced welfare society: they sought the advice of the professionals, the doctors, psychiatrists and crisis therapists. When the study was publicized in Finland, many people reacted to it with a kind of scornful superiority. Some said that the results only show what a backward country the United States really is, and how advanced the Finnish welfare society. It did not occur to them that the results indicate something disturbing about their own society.

Finland is, indeed, such an efficient society that we have even eliminated the need for community and normal human relations. We are the perfect living-machine, a society as a machine for efficient living. I seem to be among an increasingly small number of people living in this country who still dare to ask, “What is the real human cost of this coldly rational way of life?”

Finland: the healthiest, most educated, rich and politically sound nation. Photo: Newsweek

Another one from Kraig Watson and liked by Kalevi –

What about enjoyment of life? i live in oslo and would have more fun in a microwave with a metal suit on.

And one more Jacob Matthan –

Is Finland the best country in the world to live in?

That is what a recent Newsweek report said.

It is obvious that none of the Newsweek Team have never lived in Finland!

Finns are the “Masters of Spin”. The country is controlled by an oligarchy of about 50 powerful families (It used to be 5 but the base has widened slightly during the three decades.)

The Oligarchy control the Media. That is the most powerful weapon in the arsenal.

The judiciary, police, bureaucracy, lawyers, and politicians are primarily corrupt. The laws of the country are written to run such a system, so the word corruption does not exist in their little world.

How else can the proportional system of Government exist. In one election it may be a coalition of right and centre, while in the next it may be left and centre, while in the next it could be right and left! the promises made in any election campaign are just words for the masses to consume. the real wheeler dealing occurs in the chambers of power after the election where the poor are sacrificed at the expense of the rich!

The politicians do what the Oligarchy tells them. In the process they throw a few crumbs to the Finnish Public!

The schooling system is a joke in that the students are not permitted to question their teachers. This takes the student to adolescence where the Finnish male is forced into compulsory military service which makes them into zombies. (Exceptions do occur, but they are exceptions!)

To not take part in the army service was considered traitorous till one son of a Finnish sitting President decided he world not join the army. A dilemma but it gave relief to some who were not the zombies of Finland.

The country has been run by a cartel system. There is no maximum retail price law. The Finns are fleeced. The Oligarchy convinced the Finnish Public that just because they paid highest prices, they had the “Highest Standard of Living”. Whereas the Finns just had the “Highest Cost of Living”.

As a result Finns have been the top “Economic Migrants” to every corner of the globe, starting with their neighbour Sweden.

On the other hand Finns do not tolerate migration into Finland, except when it serves their purpose as allowing prostitutes from third world countries to enter freely!

Even the word for migrant - immigrant or emigrant was demonized in Finland!

Every country has its good and bad points and so to Finland. Finland is a good country to live in, but certainly not the BEST! The grass always appears greener on the other side of the fence. The Newsweek team should live in finland for a short while and then they will realise the error of their conclusions.

So, where on earth people are happy, then?

Bangladesh: Children on Boat. Photo: Wikimedia

Freakonomics - Review of the Book

2010-08-16T13:42:00.006+06:00

I made a quick review of the book Freakonomics by Steven D. Lavitt and Stephen J. Dubner. Well it did not yield me a mundane return, but I think there would be people who might like it anyway.

Freakonomics: Review of the Book

View more presentations from Shaer Hassan.

By the way, do you know who Ted Kaczynski is? He is mentioned at the end of the presentation. You know what? He got a post in his own name in Wikipedia! Must be a very famous guy? Click the link here: Ted Kaczynski.

Color Picker for Mac

2010-08-15T16:18:00.002+06:00

I have been using Mac for a couple of years, and am never through with its enigma. Mac has so many gems under its hood!

If you were wondering like me how to get a color picker for Mac, here is the solution.

If you are using Mac OS X, just type DigitalColor Meter on the spotlight. Run the application. Point to any position of the desktop. Press command+shift+h to select the color.

To know the hexadecimal color code, choose 'RGB as Hex value, 8-bit' from the drop down of the application. Whereever you need to put the color code just type the value against R, G and B serially without space (666699 for the blue in above image). Voila!

There are other solutions to this color picker problem. But this is the quick and easiest. Enjoy!

Slow Movement

2010-06-20T14:00:00.001+06:00

I found a video promoting slow movement a couple of months back:

http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/carl_honore_praises_slowness.html

Quite interesting, if you have moderate internet speed to watch this :).

My take? Europeans can afford the slow thing. We can't. While we, Bangladeshis are inherently slow, we top in corruption, poverty, bureaucracy, procrastination -- last thing we need is to be preached about slowness.

Yes, I know the Europeans... I've seen our CXOs and consultants in GP leave office during the daylight, while we are staying till 10 pm for next day event. For outsourced job, we stay up here at any odd time of the day and night, while they pick the time of their choice for product meeting. They remain unreachable for about a month during Christmas. Some of them are unreachable for almost a couple of months during summer, Easter, or god knows what.

Can we afford that?

If we are unreachable for a fraction of a day, we are labeled as 'unprofessional' . The next day the work and fund move to Indonesia, Vietnam, Brazil, Argentina or any of the myriad options they have.

Slowness thing has some merit. But let's not slow down while we live in this dirty, problem ridden, unorganized jungle of homo sapiens. We need to be fast and real fast to make this country a better place.

Now is not the time to slow down. We are at a war -- an economic war, a war to make our country a decent living space. The people who are preaching about slowness, eradication of child labor etc. were really fast when they were at war. And they defeated the slower part of the world time and again. Now that they have a good system, they can afford to be slow. There is this stupid third world who works fast, cheap and stays up to take care of the price of their slowness.

We, on the other hand, don't even have a system. We shall have to try many things, learn form mistakes with a hope that down the line we will have one. Riding on that we will be able to be slow some day; give time to family, friends -- play golf, switch off cell phone in weekends etc.

I think it's a crime for us if we be slow right now. We are supposed to be the leaders of the nation. We are the creme de la creme of the country. (The point that you are being able to read this post proves that you belong to the super privileged part of the population.) The nation does not need another "slow leader" now.

Japanese are workaholic. They work 16 hours in a day. They are super productive, innovative, fast and professional. Americans work hard, fast and long hours, too (we get quick feedback from them :-)).

So, let's not confuse by choosing the wrong idol. We don't have luxury to be slow, my friends. I mean... look around you!

Who are the heroes of our time?

2010-06-08T14:13:00.011+06:00

Entrepreneurs are heroes. They are the value creator. They see opportunities while others see emptiness. They are the engines of today's economy. They are risk takers, the dreamers and the doers.

You agree with it or not, no matter what your mother said about the business people, no matter how high your father talked about the government service, or however glorified your friend’s job in MNC seems, or how your brother bragged about his life in a developed country, how every children grown in this country with a dream to be a doctor or an engineer; entrepreneurs are the super heroes of a modern country.

They are the seeds, the organizers, the believers, and the challengers.

Good for Bangladesh that it has just started to know that. If it wants to prosper further, it must recognize the heroes and start honoring them every way it can. Citizens should better cherish to be one of them.

Not every person can be or will be an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs are the smartest, the wisest, the different and the rare breed of a society. You may not end up being one of them, but if you can, rush to be one.

What is there of more fun and rewarding in life than to dream of something, involve a team in your dream, work to materialize that, live to see your dream come true, live to see how life of many transformed positively because of you, live to see your creation changing the society and transforming the country? And finally when you are not here, your baton is passed, things become larger and greater, and you still are the seed of a great entity. No one can take that away from you.

So, you the mortal and the small one! are you ready to be someone to create immortals — to create entities of limitless size?

If you don’t think you have the guts to be one of them yet; start by honoring them as the super heroes of your time.

This post is dedicated to Syed H. Rayhan, and all the entrepreneurs and wannabe entrepreneurs of Bangladesh.

What do you want?

2010-05-19T10:25:00.001+06:00

You don't need to prove anything to anyone but to you.

Wanting the right thing is the most difficult part of the life. Achieving is fairly easy.

Most people fail for pursuing the wrong dream.

Bad Leaders

2010-04-26T11:35:00.001+06:00

If good people escape and shy away from leading, any kind of person takes the lead. In general, Bangladesh is full of two kinds of people. Corrupt doers and escapist beholders.

Certification, or Not?

2010-04-19T13:06:00.001+06:00

Any kind of certification tries to assure a minimum standard of the certificate holder.

To get the certificate, you shall have to go through their process. Now, the problem is you can go through their process, get the certificate, without achieving the minimum standard.

How? there are many ways. You can dumbly memorize the stuff and reproduce in the exam, you can cheat, you can read the topic but still hate it and try to forget it after exam. In other words you get the certification without passion or love for the subject; so, eventually you don't relate it to your real/work life. You forget your learning soon and cannot utilize it in your life.

Learning from real life is always long lasting, although the process is slower than learning from knowledge acquired by other people. So, a mix of both of them is a good idea. Certification process in most cases emphasize on learning from documented knowledge, and undervalues learning from real life.

I blatantly dare to say that you can actually get an A in your graduation without learning almost nothing that you can contribute to your life. Well, if you wanted you could both take the learning and get an A, too.

In almost no subject, certificate is the ultimate thing. There are smart certificate holders, and there are dumb certificate holders. And usually the exceptionally smartest ppl don't hold a certificate. That's because they don't need one, they think that's wastage of time and soon they reach to a level from where they can certify other ppl -- officially or unofficially :). That's why probably they invented the idea of honorary degree. Bill Gates got one from Harvard.

So, why ppl still run for and ask for certification?

Well, this is the next best thing to surely know someone as good or bad.

Not every dropout become Bill Gates.

Right, but not every phd founds Google either.

So, it must be something else, not certification. The X- factor of success is beyond the scope of certification.

Water for a Dead Hero, None for Lives

2010-04-12T13:51:00.001+06:00

Every morning one truck full of water is wasted to wash the road and pavement in front of Bangabandhu Museum (Dhanmondi 32 - old).

I am sure, had Sheikh Mujibur Rahman been alive, he wouldn't like this squandering while hundreds of thousands of people in many areas in Dhaka are not getting a drop of running water for months.

My Dream

2010-03-31T15:48:00.001+06:00

I dream to build a school like this here in Bangladesh.

Anyone to join hands?

I am frustrated

2010-03-29T16:52:00.001+06:00

I am frustrated to know so much I am endowed with and so little I give back.

I am probably among the top 5% gifted people in Bangladesh. Probably among the top 10% among the world. Well, that’s what is my guesstimate. But, that’s a scarily huge responsibility!

I don’t deserve this if I can’t give back enough. Many of us don’t deserve this.

We are the creme de la creme of Bangladesh at the point of building a prosperous country. And still we are, or at least I am yet to fix the goal, determine the duties.

Even frustration is not an excuse.

Which Private University is Good for Business Schooling in Bangladesh?

2010-03-23T18:13:00.003+06:00

One of friends wanted to admit his ‘near and dear’ one to a private university and asked my suggestion. And I replied as below:

Apart from IBA, DU, JU, KU, NSU, Brac University, IUB, AIUB and East West studying in any other universities is sheer wastage of time, energy and money.

I would grade Presidency, Asian, World, SouthEast, Stamford etc. as 'C' category business schools. There are people who already have a good job and want to buy a certificate to add an MBA degree in their CVs to justify their promotion. The 'C' category degree only makes sense to them.

In the 'C' category universities, it is actually possible to get a degree with good standing without learning anything (figuratively). You get 'suggestions' before exams and you can cheat in your exams.

This does not imply all 'C' category university graduates are incompetent. There are some, who are competent business professionals, but that is not because they studied in those universities. They are good by their own experience and interest to learn.

Those universities don't guarantee any standard at all.

This is my opinion based on my perception. I didn't check all the graduates from all the private universities, but in my career I came across a few. And I am afraid most of the employers share similar perception as I do.

So, ask your near and dear one to aim for East West or better ones.

And if s/he thinks s/he can't do that. Ask her to try something else. Not everyone needs to be business graduate. There is BA in advertising offered in AIUB for example. There are graphics designing, fashion designing, web designing, bank management, personnel management, development studies... offered by many institutions. So many new things are coming and we need more of them. We don't need another dumb 'business graduate' from a C category university. Ask her to be a big fish in a small pond instead.

How Important are References for Getting a Job in Bangladesh?

2010-03-22T14:19:00.003+06:00

There is a myth, in Bangladesh you won’t get a job without references.

I strongly disagree with this. Professional qualification and achievement come first, reference is checked at the very end. Everyone has that kind of reference if she is not lying on her CV.

Only reference isn't going to give you a good job.

There are exceptions. For unskilled labor i.e. for very unimportant roles, where anyone can do the job and not much is expected from the position - reference play an important role. Entry level govt. job, clerical job in banks, entry level programmer maybe who is expected to do coding without any tentative succession plan in place - are this kind of jobs.

It's very simple. If I have a company of my own, I won't hire my brother in the position of Business Development Manager or CTO if he doesn't have any experience or track record of success. Business needs success, and I will only hire someone who has the most probability to bring me that.

Well, If my aunt request me a lot, I will probably consider hiring my cousin as an Assistant Administrative

Officer. Low risk, low expectation and low pay, too.

So, if you want to break the vicious circle of references, be a high achiever, be visible. You can do that right from your own position. Internet, for example, is a wonderful tool to make yourself visible in the corporate radar. Make your own reference.

Recently one of my colleagues got a high paying job recently. The employer found him in the internet; read his blog. There are numerous examples of this kind.

I have a hypothesis. After five years, say from 2015 the employers will not ask for your CV, they will ask for relevant URLs. URLs of your LinkedIn address, blog address, published CV, published projects, contribution to the communities, personal websites etc. Employers will search on google to check your background. If you are not visible in www, you are nobody.

Sill a hypothesis, though :)

P.S.: Last 12 years, I worked for four companies of varying sizes ranged from 17 persons to 5000. References didn't work for me.

Passion Versus Patience

2010-03-14T12:49:00.001+06:00

Love at the first sight. Propose your girl, by telling that you love her. Feel that you can give your life for her. Keep awake a night of a year for something you care, for someone like your offspring, fiends, or for the almighty creator (on Shab-e-Qadr, if you are Muslim, for example). Do great in your class or your profession in the first few months of your joining when you really need to prove yourself. All these are great. You really need to have passion inside you. So, they are great. Are they?

What about dedicate love and care of your whole life for someone? Endure and enjoy seeing the same face everyday when you wake up and every night when you go to sleep. Spend your precious time, offer your helping hands and brighten her day with your smile on each day of her life. Offer prayer 5 times a day without any failure, for your whole life. Be persistent with your integrity, hard work and sincerity for each day of your long career. What do you call them? Patience? endurance? Consistence? Perseverance? Are they great?

So, which one is great? Which one is greater? Passion or patience? Charisma or persistent sincerity? One time star performer or regular consistent player?

Success needs discipline, perseverance and focus. Unforgiving focus in good time and bad time, in easy days and hard days. And sacrifice everything else. If you don’t practice those in you life, don’t expect success. You really need to love the game, play good, and play as many games as it is possible for a human being, to be a Sachin Tendulkar in cricket.

I think passion is common, patience is rare. You need both to be successful, but second one is the most cherished one among two, and deciding factor for most as well.

Beautiful Life

2010-03-11T11:31:00.001+06:00

A rather inspiring video from bdipo. For those who don’t know about bdipo, it is a site to help people with IPO application. They would fill up your forms for you, and give you an interface to search IPO lottery results. There could be more, I don’t know yet.

Good SaaS model apparently.

Why Companies Win in 21st Century?

2010-03-02T14:19:00.001+06:00

Not a big deal, but this presentation gave me a job!

Why Companies Win

Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish

2010-03-02T11:06:00.001+06:00

This is from Steve Jobs, one of the greatest entrepreneurs of the world. I can’t control my temptation to affix it to my blog.

Spam in the Name of Allah!

2010-02-18T13:02:00.001+06:00

I got an email to one of my group adds:

Send these 5 names to 11 muslims, believe me ur biggest problem will be solved Insha Allah.
Ya ALLAH
Ya KARIM
Ya AWWAL
Ya AAKH ER
Ya MUJEEB
Don't delete it. Try it even if u don't believe it.

Hmmm, I usually ignore this kind of messages. Or, if I know the sender personally, I dare to send him/her a reply warning him not to contribute in spamming.

Shamim from 38D batch of IBA posted a nice reply. I liked it so much that I couldn’t resist to share it to my blog:

Before forwarding this type of mail please think about some very basic things.

1. What is the reference of this speech. Is it supported by Quran or Hadith?

2. The Names of Allah is no doubt very good. But this way "5 names to 11 muslims", from where one has found this number?

3. "your biggest problem will be solved" encourages to use the names of Allah for the benefit of dunia, not for akherat.

4. You are assuring by "believe me". How can you assure that?

I suppose this is one type of Fitna. We usually receive this type of mail in several group mails also.

There are some assurances of financial improvement, official promotion, problem solving etc. So one with little knowledge about Islam sent the message to 11 muslims and didn't get any problem solved can make an ill comment to the name of Allah and lose his Iman easily.

Before circulate any mail relating Islam please be sure that it is supported by Quran or Hadith or both. because the responsibility imposes upon you.

May Allah help us to prevent ourselves from any Fitna.

I think this explains a lot.

Politicians are Bad

2010-02-14T12:23:00.001+06:00

On the other day one of my relatives was saying our politicians are this, our politicians are that. He was nagging about incompetency of our politicians. Well, that’s not something new. That’s the usual and most favorite time pass of Bangladeshis.

In a BBC Songlap Motia Chowdhury quoted “A country gets the leader it deserves.” Truly said. Similar promise is made by Allah. In hadith it is mentioned, if a Muslim nation does not kayem salaat, Allah will provide tyrant leader for that nation. Well, what is the logical relationship between salaat and leadership – that’s another story.

If you think you would be a better politician, why don’t you run for one? If you are chicken enough not to do so, please keep your sorry mouth shut. Focus to some productive work.

You can’t probably make a difference to the whole nation, but you can for sure to a couple of persons’ lives or to families.

Ask not what Bangladesh has done for you, ask what you have done for Bangladesh (adaptation from JFK).

Should Software Engineers Read?

2010-02-14T10:19:00.003+06:00

Software engineers should read, no matter companies give them special time slot for reading or not. Companies take only 8 to 10 hours of a day. What about rest hours? A good engineer reads everyday, one to two hours at least. 4/5 hours in the weekend. You don't have to go far, we have many examples of that kind of SE right here in Bangladesh.

I think SE is a profession which is more like an artist, a musician, a writer or a doctor. To be a good professional of these kinds one need to merge his/her hobby and work. If you are not that passionate or committed, don't nag by saying your company doesn't allow you time for R&D. Go and find some other job for living. Be an accountant for example. Accounting practice is almost same for last 50 years. In IT, if you are out of touch for a year, you are an alien.

IT industry in BD is not yet in R&D mode. We are still playing at the lower end of the value chain. Whose primary responsibilities is it to promote ourselves to higher value chain? Businessmen? Not really.
IT industry is always dominated by geeks. And it is engineers’ primary responsibility to bring in innovation, learn high value job and gradually create a situation where R&D becomes part of the company’s job.

So, if your project manager is mean enough not to allow you reading tech stuff when you are free, do it at home. Learn and implement some interesting things in your work and show your manager how your learning helped the company to yield customer satisfaction or save time of the developers. Maybe your manager will change mind.

Google releases Buzz

2010-02-11T12:54:00.003+06:00

One of my friends wished Buzz becomes another Facebook.

I don't think it's gonna be something near to Facebook. Both Windows Live and Yahoo tried this, without much buzz in fact :).

The future lies in somewhere else; interoperability of social networking and IM. That means no matter what platform you are in (Facebook, Buzz, Twitter, Live, Yahoo)... everyone sees everyone. For example, being a Buzz user you should be able to add your friends in Facebook, without you ever signing up for Facebook.

I mean if a gmail user can send an email to yahoo mail users, why can't a Facebook status update reach a Live user (if both agree to see each other)?

That's something we deserve and should demand for, don't we?

Welcome 2010

2010-02-02T18:11:00.002+06:00

Good bye 2009 and welcome 2010.

Where to start a promising and exciting year, other than right from the wild nature? To rejuvenate, to educate and to recharge ourselves with energy and promise we went back to the nature this January.

Lawachara is a national reserve forest located in Sreemangal, which is also famous for the highest rainfall, orange orchard, export quality tea, indigenous people like Manipuri and Khasia, and the natural reserved lake - Baikka in the vicinity.

We started our journey early in the morning.

The tea garden was fabulous.

The landscape was breath-taking …

Not quite was the navigation through it.

But there were hands to help

and little things that made us laugh.

The woods were dark and deep

and dangerous species lurking around,

but we had miles to go before we sleep.

As we knew 2010 is a year to fly

on the wings of our weaved dream.

[We took loads of pics visit our Facebook Fanpage to see more.]

She is only 2 years and 8 months, and I put her in school!

2010-01-17T18:08:00.001+06:00

Is it too early to put one in school?

She is always eager to go to school, as sharp as any other kid of twenty first century, and don’t have much environment learn at home. So, I put her in school this January. Not very sure if I took a right decision though. But I am trying to do what I think is best for my kid. Hope, she will forgive me, if I am wrong.

Hans in TED

2009-09-10T11:10:00.002+07:00

Look how we could analyze the data and miracle happens:

Hans on TED

goodreads

2009-09-08T13:25:00.003+07:00

I just love the site http://www.goodreads.com/

Setting priorities.

2009-09-08T13:21:00.002+07:00

I think the biggest challenge in life is setting priorities. The second one is trading-off short term gain for a long term one. That's probably something to do with emotional IQ.

Focus

2009-08-19T12:59:00.005+07:00

Sometimes it is hard to focus. Really? Sometimes?

Okay, most of the time. At least for me, it is most of the time. And from my experience I can say that many people suffers from similar problem.

Didn't someone in the Brand Forum said, "Branding is sacrificing."? In other words branding means focusing to a single space to your customer's mind. Same principle holds true for personal branding.

I played a lot with my life, and I don't recommend others do the same. But when you don't have enough information to reach to the right decision, you choose the option you think is the best. There are people who can stick to their path and make that right. I wasn't very good at it.

To put it in euphemisms: there are other set of people who are bold enough to spot the wrong decision, acknowledge that, and moves away to a better option. These people take risk, embrace change and challenge status quo. I dare to say, I am one of them. Is it too much of euphemism?

Using friends

2009-04-12T16:51:00.004+06:00

Recently a few of my friends defected from rest of us. They rebelled saying that they do not want to be used anymore. They said that we had been using them, and they do not want to be treated that way anymore. They cited a series of exemplary events as evidence of their demand. They sounded like proletariat (have not's) and we were portrayed as aristocrat (have's). I found this kind of rivalry among siblings (well-off and not so well-off ones) before.

My views?

Although I proudly denied before, now I sadly agree that it is nearly impossible to carry on a sustainable friendship (and relationship, too?) among two persons from different economic classes.

My message to them and us: what is the essence of friendship left without the opportunities of using (to get help from) others and being used by (helping) them. After all a friend in need is a friend in deed. Isn't it so?

Boss loves options

2009-02-16T15:23:00.006+06:00

Even if you know the obvious one, always offer your boss options. In most cases your boss will love to decide. Overdoing of this may show you are incompetent or unconfident to take trivial decisions.

For critical business decisions you must consult your supervisor. Even for some trivial issues boss should be consulted. Different persons have interest or perceived expertise on different issues. So, give your boss options to decide on his/her interest and/or expertise area.

Striking the balance and doing this right is very critical for your career and for your life. If you don't understand why, think harder.

Ask four questions before you choose a career

2009-02-12T15:07:00.009+06:00

Four things are important while choosing your career.

1. Is this the career that you cherish?

Look at and talk to the people who have built their career in the path that you are considering. Do you want to be like him/her in future? Would you like others finding you as one of them? Would you like to live rest of your life as one of them?

2. Do you have interest in the process?

Well, you would love to be a banker, you envy the respect and money the top level bankers enjoy. So, should you jump to be a banker? Sure, but ask yourself a couple of questions before you do so. Would you love to do, that a typical banker does in everyday and in his career? Talk to one of them. Ask them what it takes to be a successful banker? Ask yourself if you would take interest in the process, not only in the result.
Living a highflying corporate life, earning a handsome amount of money, riding company's car, owning apartment in condo are the results. The process includes earning degrees like FCA, CFA or MBA. Loving numbers and loving accounting. Loving to analyze in closed door in limited time and often under pressure. These aren't as bad as it sounds. There are people who love those. Ask yourself whether you are one of them.

3. Do you have required strengths?

I love the lives of lawyers. I love to read law, too. But I am not as fast reader as a successful lawyer should be. Or, I do not have strengths in reading a lot, remembering and summarizing them and presenting them in very convincing manner. That is why I did not choose to be a lawyer.

The third question you should ask yourself whether you have strengths those are required to be successful in the career you are considering. After all you don't want be a failed lawyer or not so good banker, do you?

4. Is there adequate demand in the market to absorb new professionals?

You, as a potential product, should consider the market demand, too. You may consider in a local or a global perspective. Whatever your perspective is, make sure there is enough demand for a new professional like you. In a market where there are many unemployed law graduates it would be more difficult to earn a modest living hood than in a market where acute demand is prevalent.

Probably you won't get a strong yes while answering each of four questions. But, choose the best combination. If any question answers a strong no or simple no, don't go for it.

Train is whistling, Bangladesh get up

2009-02-05T09:35:00.004+06:00

Recently I had the opportunity to attain the BASIS SoftExpo 2009. I was there at the fair stalls, attained quite a few seminars and finally the CEO Night sponsored by the main sponsor Grameenphone. Everywhere I found a mood of 'Yes we can' feeling. One might argue -- well, that's the whole point of organizing seminars or expositions. But I had a feeling it had more than that.

With the global financial crisis hanging around, with developed countries looking for cheaper options, with GOB pledging for digital Bangladesh by 2021, with simultaneous change of regime in US and Bangladesh -- both heavily emphasizing on technology, and with recent trend of NRBs and US SMEs acquiring Bangladeshi IT & ITES firms -- can we say that train is coming, and we need to bundle ourselves up? Some (e.g. KJ of InterNext) say that it's the last train. A think there's always a next, but we don't know when is that next. I won't enjoy watching my grandkids availing my dreamt train leaving me on the platform forever. Will you?

Moving from a large organization to a startup

2009-01-16T14:54:00.001+06:00

Yeah! You need to be a risk taker, first. You got to love challenges, adrenaline rush, and dealing with unknown.

If you feel bored with your current job, not because the job isn't paying you enough hard cash, but because it's not giving you enough challenges, scope to prove your potential, and opportunity to learn and fast forward your career growth, this piece of blog might worth your time.

To establish some credibility, first, I need to define myself, I guess. I am a marine officer turned corporate manager who did his MBA from the best school in my country. I took my job in my second career in advertising first, then in a telecommunication company -- again the largest corporate house in the country. In between my 5 years of (second) career I bagged two decent promotions, to join to a IT startup as the Head of Operation and Sales which promised to grow as a CEO. I don't want to sound it like bragging, but so much so for establishing the credibility of the blogger :)

The Downside

1. you would miss many back patting. Especially your friends, your relatives will not look proud to introduce you to others. You will suddenly stop receiving many calls, birthday wishes, new years, and other season greetings.

2. Stratups will offer you fewer fringe benefits. No fancy cars, no escorts -- in anywhere of the country , or world, no health insurance, no children education cost, no unlimited sick leaves etc. Well sometimes you might find many of the benefits are never used, but for some it may be essentials.

3. People with need will stop calling you, rather you may have to start calling to people for your needs. As you know small firms run after the large corporate houses, and its never the opposit, no matter who is vendor here. :)

The Upside

1. You will suddenly start enjoying your work. Ahem! is that not worth facing all the stated downsides? Well, of course, I only guarantee you job satisfaction if, one: you are my type i.e. the the type as stated at the first couple of lines of the blog. Second, the employer should not be bitch type!!

Tips

1. Maintain a mental preparation to move to startups or SMEs. Don't get to too used to flamboyant life of large corporate houses.

2. Be prepared to do-it-yourself when you join a startup. While for large organizations each job is segmented, and there are dedicated persons or vendors assigned for each miniscule piece of work, in startup even being a CEO, you probably have to do it all. It might sound scary for some, but for me it was complete fun.

3. Keep your networks alive. Rekindle your connections. While in giant organizations there were many people, vendors, colleagues used to call you just to keep a warm and fruitful relationship with you, now it is your turn. so, prepared to do that and keep it rolling even before you switch.

Corporate life

2007-05-10T20:11:00.001+06:00

This is about 7 years since I left my sea life and entered into the process of corporate slavery. I dreamt of this life since my adulthood. working 14 hrs a day, being a workaholic. The sad part is that the corporate world won't wait a while if you are not required. At the end of everything family really matters. And I am reminding that myself and others through this blog.

Start it!

2005-05-26T20:29:00.000+06:00

Hi All! Today I've just started blogging. Let it flow freely! Probably hundreds will watch my words within next few weeks. Probably none will see it in months.