The Google Country Consultant (Bangladesh) talks about his illustrious career and the challenges faced while working for some of the largest multinational and national companies in Bangladesh and across the region. In an interview with Dhaka Tribune he talks about the things that keep him going in his unstoppable pursuit for excellence.
Tell us how you have come to work for Google.
I got the first call when I was in Shanghai attending MBA classes. I asked them to contact me when I was back in Dhaka. They interviewed me for several hours and after a lengthy round of additional interviews they offered me to lead Bangladesh roll-out of Google Operations.
What went through preparing the Google Doodle for Independence Day on March 26?
Doodles are the fun, surprising, and sometimes spontaneous changes that are made to the Google logo to celebrate holidays, anniversaries, and the lives of famous artists, pioneers, and scientists. We’ve been creating doodles to celebrate special occasions and people throughout the world, and hope they bring our users surprise and delight.
Your first job was in British American Tobacco Bangladesh (BATB). How did you get there?
BATB was conducting a recruitment campaign titled “We Challenge You” in IBA (DU), NSU and Khulna University. At the end of the assessment rounds, I and another student from Khulna University were selected. BATB management had allowed me to complete my internship simultaneously with my job. I played various roles in BATB in Srimangal, Sylhet, Khulna, and Dhaka since 1998 to 2005. In 2005, I joined Orascom in their initial phase of launching Banglalink, as head of the Direct Sales Division.
What were the challenges in working for a start-up like Banglalink?
It was a very challenging experience for me. On the early days of operations, we observed that people were unable to buy Banglalink connections from retail shops as connections were sold out. Some retailers were hoarding mobile connection and affordable handsets with the hope of selling at a bigger profit margin later.
To overcome this issue, I suggested forming a team that would go door-to-door for selling mobile connections. Hundreds of “groups of two” were formed across the country for selling directly to customers. This group was later scaled up to an 8,000 member team. Sales skyrocketed following this and other established players started emulating the model. Banglalink hit 1 million subscribers landmark in record time.
You have also worked for Grameenphone. Tell us about your experience there.
I worked for Grammenphone (GP) as Regional Sales Manager. While supervising one of the largest teams (the entire field force) in GP, I made use of the opportunity to tour all GP points across the nation and meet almost all my team members. My role was to change the sales strategy from existing pull model to a push model. After working for over a year in Sales I applied for the Position of Head of Marcomm, which was vacant. Eventually, I was assigned as Chief Communications Officer. It was a huge opportunity for me to contribute on a bigger scale at GP and also across the telecom Industry.
Which is the most favourite Campaign you ran for GP?
When I started as CCO, my primary objective was to bring the brand to life, bringing it closer to people’s lives. We ran some research on what people’s expectations were from GP. We were surprised to see the high regard and esteem they had about GP. I strived to get GP out on TV and billboard to be relevant in a more engaging way. A few favourite campaigns are “Dunia Kapano Trish Minute” on 21st February, “Shopno Jabe Bari” which we did before Eid, “Amare Chariya Bondhu Koi Gela” and “Amar Desh Amar Gorbo” – activation on 16th of December etc.
Among these “Amare Chariya Bondhu” comes on top of others as it was launched at a time when GP was upgrading its technology, and network was unreachable in many areas. Besides it was the first TVC that topped Banglalinks “Desh” in terms of viewership, as we finally managed to connect with emotions that people found relevant.
What did you do different that helped you grow in your career?
I worked extremely hard. I never believed in dogmas such as separating emotions from your job. To me, you are your job. You spend most of your day at work. It was important that I loved the work I do. I always planned meticulously to the very last detail. They did not always work, but if it didn’t I revised plans. In the Telco industry, a 1-year plan will not work out because of the uncertainty, intense competition and the speed of activities. I made plans for shorter periods, of which I was confident about and kept scope for revising them if required.
Please tell us about your academic background.
I graduated from Khulna University with Bachelors in Business Administration. Then, I did Accelerated Marketing & Leadership Programmes in London Business School and BI Norwegian Business School. Currently, I am pursuing MBA from the Berlin School of Creative Leadership.
What are the five key words that come to your mind when you think of the perfect creative campaign?
From whatever I have learned from my Advertising gurus Piyush Pandey and Michael Conrad is a good creative campaign connects the brand with the audience/consumers, engages the consumers, enlightens the consumers, entertains the consumers and leaves a memory.
What is your advice for young jobseekers in the field of marketing?
Those who have already decided to work in Telco or FMCG, I would suggest them not to limit themselves for working in corporates only, but rather to look for opportunities to drive and do new, innovative and enterprising things. There’s no alternative to hard work and having passion for what you do.
To young entrepreneurs, I will ask them to form a clear strategy and have a solid plan which must incorporate some scope for flexibility.
