Shaping tomorrow’s business leaders

If you are one of those graduating students of this year, who is preparing to complete his/her 4 years journey of theories at university, planning to embark on a life where one gets to implement those theories into reality, what can be a better way than to get a sneak peek through business competition organized by Unilever. Unilever BizMaestros is one of the most popular and desired business competitions for fresh graduates. The journey for BizMaestros began seven years back with the aim to encourage the youth from various academic backgrounds to explore their talents with one of the largest FMCG companies of the country. The format is designed in a way that gives the students glimpse of the real business through various challenges. This season, the participants were expected to present their creativity along with a critical emphasis on their ability to understand business analytics. The objective for Unilever has always been about identifying the leaders of tomorrow. ‘School of Leaders’ – as Unilever is globally known for, is the essence of Unilever’s approach to talent. This year the journey for BizMaestros participants had the same focus. The seventh season of BizMaestros came to a close on November 17 at Radisson Blu Water Garden hotel in Dhaka where the Champions were chosen. As the country representatives, the champions of BizMaestros will be representing Bangladesh and Unilever Bangladesh in the global business competition named ‘Unilever Future Leader’s League’ to be held in May 2017 in London. Team Potter from IBA comprising of Mastura Tasnim, Rakib Ibany and Tanzir Islam won the title after battling in 4 rounds and finally lifting the country cup. Bangladesh has been the defending champion in Unilever Future Leader’s League in 2016 beating 3 Lakh students from all around the world, lifting the cup in London. Hence this year the journey for the winning team of BizMaestros will not just be about representing the country, but also about continuing the legacy. This year only 4 teams qualified to the final round from a total of 283 teams from universities all over the country. After three extremely vigorous and nerve wracking rounds it was still very difficult for the judges to select their favorites amongst so many amazing ones. The teams that went through the final round were: Team Potter, Challenge Accepted, Team-TCube and Team Fatman and Little Boys from IBA and Bangladesh University of Professionals. More than 280 teams participated in a day long assessment initially. Twenty two teams from top campuses from all across the country were chosen to compete in the quarter finals. Teams had to complete very challenging tasks. Within 6 hours time they were required to interpret business analytics to provide a crucial business decision the next day. The teams were assessed by the business managers of Unilever Bangladesh. Following the presentation only 10 teams had the opportunity to compete in the semifinal round. The semi-finalists were called in the Unilever head office, where they had a briefing session for their next task. The semi-final round was titled “Market Visits”. This was not a regular, run-of-the-mill market visit. The challenge for the semi-final round was to search specific markets and find out the slowest moving product and come up with ideas to increase their visibility. They were given 2 days to survey the market and present their ideas on the 3rd day. An intense 20 minute presentation at the Unilever head office for each of the 10 teams resulted in 4 finalists. The finale was inaugurated with the welcoming speech of Kamran Bakr, the Chairman and the Managing Director of Unilever Bangladesh. In his speech he emphasized on the potential of the talent of this country and how over the years the young fresh graduates have been breaking glass ceiling in the global platform. Tension started to build up when all 4 teams delivered equally impressive presentation on their task. Judges had tough time to select the winners and finally after 30 minutes of discussion, the team were announced. Team T Cube became the 2nd runner up and Challenge Accepted became 1st runner up and finally the title was clinched by Team Potter. The event were judged by the Managing Committee of Unilever Bangladesh – Mr. Kamran Bakr –Chairman, Unilever Bangladesh, Aminur Rahman – Supply Chain Director, Zahid Malita – Finance Director and Kunal Sharma – Human Resources Director. The event was attended by the esteem faculties, media personals, and participating universities. Caption for photo IMG_6252 : Winning moment for Team Potter: The Champion of BizMaestros 2016 with the management committee of Unilever Bangladesh . IMG 6174: From the left, Kunal Sharma: Human Resources Director, Kamran Bakr: Chairman & Managing Director, Aminur Rahman: Supply Chain Director and Zahid Malita : Finance Director of Unilever Bangladesh on the stage of BizMaestros 2016. IMG 5403: The finalist team on the stage of Unilever BizMaestros. IMG 5345: Kamran Bakr, Chairman & Managing Director of Unilever Bangladesh opening the ceremony.