Battle of Minds 2013 concludes with a BANG! Competing in the final round were five teams from IBA, IUT and NSU.
In the last round of the competition, the teams assumed the roles of consultants to a hypothetical multinational tea company. They had come up with unique flavours of tea with provided ingredients. They prepared a business and marketing plan for their products.
The grand finale was held at the Radisson Blu Water Garden Hotel Dhaka on September 4. The teams presented their products and business plans to the judges, who were British American Tobacco (BAT) South Asia Head of Supply Chain Mustanser Ali Khan, Ceylon Tobacco Company Sri Lanka General Manager Felicio Ferraz, BAT South Asia Head of Human Resources Syed Imtiaz Faruque and BAT Bangladesh Finance Director Anthony Yong.
BAT Bangladesh Managing Director Arun Kaul said: “Battle of Minds has been one of the flagship initiatives of BAT Bangladesh aimed at developing talented graduates so that they can build bridges between their student and corporate lives.”
This year marked the 10th year of Battle of Minds. The competition has evolved over the years to include contemporary business issues to provide a platform for talented individuals to display entrepreneurial and business intelligence.
Registration for Battle of Minds started in July and more than thousands of applications were received. The final year students from universities from across the country applied to the competition this year. Students went through challenges such as business idea generation, research, product development, business strategy making, creative design and presentation.
Head of HR Rumana Rahman added: “We have hosted this event every year since 2004, and it has been met with enthusiasm from the students since inception. This competition has been adapted by a number of companies in Bangladesh and other operating companies of BAT group.”
The winning team, Ocean’s 4, competed against four other teams in the spirited final round of Battle of Minds 2013, organised by BAT Bangladesh, to identify the most talented young minds in the country.
The Ocean’s 4 team members were Mohammed Masudur Rahman, Bhaskar Kumar Dey, Sabrina Afroz, and Samira Saba. The team displayed enthusiasm, creativity and a solid combination of understanding of business and confidence. Talking to the Dhaka Tribune, Bhaskar Kumar Dey said: “I believe that the experience we’ve gained in the past few days will be really helpful when it comes to our future professional careers. Battle of Minds has taught us several valuable lessons regarding the highly crucial details of a business venture. At the end of the day, I think our attention to details helped us go the extra mile.”
Also present at the event were participants’ families, faculty members from several private and public universities of Bangladesh and senior BAT personnel.