Bangladesh's Corporate World

“Corporate culture! What is that?” There are many people who ask this question in spite of working several years in the corporate world. In spite of being crucially important, this motion is many a times left in ignorance and indifference. If you close your eyes doesn’t mean everyone else doesn’t see you. What I mean to state is, unawareness does not make corporate culture less important, and thus every corporate member must be aware of the concept of corporate culture and ways to make it healthier. Initiating the discussion, first let us understand what corporate culture is and go to its depth. The part of business involving employee attitudes, standards, policies and procedures, rites and rituals can be assumed as corporate culture. Although it is connected to the surrounding environment yet it has some unique traits as well. It can be negative, positive or even neutral. In most cases it is dynamic and changes with time but it can also be static sometimes. In a nutshell c...

Multinational companies listed on Dhaka Stock Exchange posted a heavy gain in the last calendar year in comparison with that of previous year. There are 13 multinational companies listed on the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) and these hold 34 percent of total market capitalization. DSE data showed that 12 of listed companies’ price appreciated are between 4.88% to 345% and only 1 company experienced 22.5 percent price fall in the concluding year. Recently Lafarge and Holcim have been merged and as a result it earned the highest gain. Its opening price was only tk31 at the beginning which reached tk138 at the end of the year. Grammenphone stands next as its price increased 75.71 percent to tk 360. Berger Paint’s share rose at tk1400 from 850, British American Tobacco Bangladesh placed next to Berger Paints Bangladesh by gaining 62.5 percent resulting tk2600. The price of Bata Shoe increased 57.14 percent, Glaxo SmithKline 50 percent, Marico BD 42.85 percent, Linde BD 40.62 percent, Heidel...

The hectic surrounding of cattle hut is the biggest headache of people right before the Eid-ul-Adha which is coming to an end this year in Bangladesh for the establishment of online shopping.  Facebook pages and websites are recently covered up by photos of goats and cows, many of which are even offering free home delivery. The pictures contain caption of full details of individual animal. Akhoni.com is an online shopping site which is motivating buyers to shop right from their homes. They are announcing their cattle to be absolutely healthy and local on their official facebook page. They are also delivering them to anywhere in Dhaka absolutely free within 24 hrs! On the other hand, another popular online shopping site, Bikroy.com has also been sharing similar advertisements among people. They enlisted such ads under the “Pets and Animals” category.  Whereas the oldest shopping site, Ekhanei.com, enlisted such posts under “Farm Animal” category and contains ads of both loca...

Banking sector is currently one of the most promising growth sectors in Bangladesh. For quite some time, the banks have been participating as a noteworthy contributor in the economic escalation of Bangladesh as we know it through sustainable savings and strategic investments. Both state-run banks and private banks are contributing in the process. However, speculating the huge success of private sector compared to that of public banks or state owned banks and the loss that it is causing to majority tax payers, many experts opined that government should privatize the state owned banks and save the sinking boat of the tax-paying citizens. In the vast never-ending depth of corruption, the state-banks are merely hanging in the balance. Like every other government organization; the public banks are constantly being affected by the political exploitation, lack of transparency, negligence and inefficient security system. With bad debts expanding their roots there seems no sign of recovery o...

One of the biggest and famous chain supermarkets of Bangladesh, Meena Bazar is up to establish its online purchase of groceries as big as its fame with the rising trend of online shopping in the state. With the widely observed issue of urban people saving their time in every possible way, the idea of home delivery service has popped up where anyone can set order for their goods at www.meenabazar.com.bd and have them in their hands within 2-3 hours. It is quite a good relief for people living a frenzied lifestyle in this overly crowded and traffic packed city. Meena Bazar has been praised by those who took the home service for being very swift and punctual in delivery. For purchases over BDT 3,500, the service is absolutely free and only a fee of tk 100 for purchases below this amount. Payment can be done both during ordering online or while you receive them. This service prevails in Dhaka, Chittagong and Khulna and in 3 more cities where Gemcon Food & Agricultural Products Ltd ope...

Due to the presence of biased obligation benefits, there is a chance that Bangladesh might find difficulties to compete with Africa nations to export garments to the U.S. Export of various garments to the US produced in African nations is increasing gradually with the zero-duty benefit under AGOA. This has been increased by 9.66% and reached $926.8 million in 2013, as stated by the US Department of commerce. Bangladesh is considered to be the most important country to export attires worth $5 billion per year to US by the payment of 15.61% duty. Garments exporters here had to pay worth $828 million as a duty to the customs of US in 2013 and a total of $3.41 billion in the past five years. Compared to the first 5 months export business of 2013, garment export to US by Bangladesh has decreased by 1.12% to$2.18 billion in this year. It is assumed that our competition will get tougher if African nations proceed this way to export to the US. The unfair duty system and expensive production c...

When we think about good and big companies, we tend to think anything other than our national companies. However the truth is very contradictory to our assumptions. Many of Bangladeshi companies including Beximco Group, ACI, Concord Group, Navana Group, Pran Group have created big names for themselves in the past.   We sometimes forget their contributions for the nation. Many Bangladeshi companies are contributing in many business sectors such as poultry, agriculture, pharmaceuticals, aviation, automobiles, real-estate, clothing, media, textiles, garments etc. Companies like Beximco Group and Concord Group not only opened whole new sectors as pioneers for the country but also they opened up new job opportunity and research facilities. These places required more quantity of workers; that generally lead to more job specific courses in universities, resulting in general raise in literacy and also technicians of the country. Bashundhara Group alone has a worker amount of ...