Mohammad Jasim Uddin

Sadakalo: Marketing of Traditional Fashion in the Modern Fashion Industry

The traditional fashion had always been just apparelling need for most of the people of Bangladesh. Over the last decade, unique contrives of apparelling has been adapting substantially to cope with the changing needs of the society but keeping in mind an inducing sense of traditional fashion which people can differentiate themselves from others. Interestingly, the traditional fashion has reached to a very competitive market in Bangladesh. As a consequence, some of the fashion houses such as, Aarong, Prabartana, Nipun, Anjans, Kay Kraft, Deshal, Rang, Sadakalo and Nabarupa have been successful to create a brand value. Specifically, Sadakalo is one of the leading fashion houses with particular focus on traditional clothes. The main aim of this article is to demonstrate how a fashion house can gain competitive advantages despite unpredictable market challenges. The article focuses on origin of Sadakalo, their products and retailing, markets and customers, planning, sourcing and warehousing, design and production, distribution, store operations, marketing and management issues and competitive challenges of Sadakalo that specially led to achieve competitive advantages. The article also explores the dynamic ideas and capabilities of the entrepreneur of Sadakalo.

Strategic Issues for Accenture Bangladesh: A Developing Country Perspective

This case study was inspected to grasp the facets of information technology (IT) industry in Bangladesh by taking Accenture, a multinational management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company as a subject of study. The purpose was to determine the importance of technology and IT for economic agents, namely, countries, companies and customers. Rapid growth and increase in demand for internet technology in all layer of activities stimulated country-wide development in IT infrastructure. The concept of a digitalized Bangladesh was dedicated to prioritize the IT sector in order to precipitate concurrent business growth and to facilitate both domestic and international relationship with concerned institutions. The ideology was reflected on other industries as these industries began to rely on a great deal of IT support to implement their operational activities. In such an environment, the Accenture Bangladesh case discussed its long-term plans for expanding its business horizon in Bangladesh.

Organizational Socialization Context: Evidence from the Microfinance Sector in the Developing Country

Although extant literature mainly emphasizes socialization models like early life socialization, socialization stage models, socialization tactics, newcomer learning and individual differences, little attention has been paid to the socialization in the organizational context. The main purpose of the research is to examine how context influences the organizational socialization process. The study has carried out multilevel organization analysis employing a single case study in the microfinance sector of Bangladesh. The study finds that contextual factors such as structure, goals, job role and environment facilitate and also constrain the socialization process. Institutional, formal, group and informal socialization tactics are commonly practiced in the multiple levels of the microfinance institution. Socialization stages such as learning and initiation, encountering and adjustment are commonly practiced and they are associated with uncertainty and environmental constraints. Overall, the study argues that context is critical in understanding and explaining socialization process.

Women in management: a developing country perspective

Women leadership has been a major issue in corporate management, especially in the developing country. Although some studies have addressed this issue from the developed country perspective, little research has been conducted to identify impediments for women leadership from the developing country perspective. Thus, the main purpose of this study is to identify the factors that impede women leadership in corporations. Specifically, the study seeks to answer two research questions. First, why there are still so few women in top management in Bangladesh? Why are women still confined to jobs that only allow them to excel at a slower pace? The study is based on in-depth interviews with top women managers. The findings suggest societally, organisational culture and political factors impede women leadership. Implications of women leadership in corporate management are also discussed.

National Fans Limited of Bangladesh

The case explores the marketing and business strategies of National Fan Limited (NFL). The company was one of the most successful domestic companies and leading ceiling fan manufacturers in Bangladesh. Specifically, the case focuses on the strengths and challenges of the company. The company had continuously expanded its operations and made a leading position in the industry since the early 1980s. It had adopted numerous dynamic strategies to sustain competitive advantage. The company, however, had experienced unprecedented challenges and setbacks to manage its growth. Besides numerous political challenges, the major issue was widespread existence of counterfeit products. Though the demand of ceilings fans had increased, the company had been struggling to keep pace with market growth due to the dearth of capacity. Other challenges were associated with raw materials and entrance of new rivals. The case allows students to explore strategies to overcome the challenges and increase market share.

Ogniroth Studios: Transforming Ideas into Innovation

The Ogniroth Studios has been an overwhelming experience in understanding how animation firms operate in Bangladesh, especially about their major promotional and marketing strategies, overall attitude and behaviour of the advertising industry towards animation and video effects (VFX). Ogniroth Studios is one of the leading VFX-based firms in Bangladeshi advertising industry that offers animation and VFX services to different clients. Since its inception, it has been dedicatedly exploring innovation and delivering outstanding and quality works. The advertising agencies that operate in Bangladesh are not equipped with in-house VFX facilities, and therefore they primarily rely on external firms, such as, Ogniroth Studios. Although such industry has a very short history in Bangladesh, over the past four years of operation Ogniroth Studios has successfully managed to offer outstanding works and thus satisfying the clients by being competitive to the global market. The founders of Ogniroth Studios believe in promoting innovation; thus, they do not restrict the boundary of imagination. Marketing activities and branding of Ogniroth Studios play a vital role to its achieving sustainability.