Haat Bazar is an initiative of the Career & Placement Centre (CPC) and the Department of Management of North South University, with NSU Young Entrepreneurs Society (YES!) as the principal organizer. The event is organized every semester, with a view to giving the students an insight on what it’s like to be an entrepreneur for a day. So far, only students enrolled Entrepreneurship Course of NSU had the opportunity to be a part of this event. The latest season of this event held on 25^th of November this year.

How it works

Haat Bazar is basically a simulation of business and entrepreneurship in reality. Students participate in groups of 4 people, investing their own money to gain a profit on it. 33 teams, 154 members are participating in the event contributing Tk. 5000 per members bearing all the risks by raising total capital of Tk. 20,000.Then they are taken to the incubation center where their ideas get groomed for one month. The main focus of the whole incubation process is to teach them innovation, creation of products and services and also how to save the cost. They create their own products and brandingand try their utter best to sell it to the students of NSU, ensuring quality.

Students have to come up with different unique names for their stalls which becomes their respective brand for the day. None of the names can be a match to another and can’t also be that of a national or an international brand. As for products, students are allowed to sell products brought from different places, as long as those are legally obtained. Although, when they decide to sell food items, they decide to make their own, some students do bring food from outside to sell to the customers. In both cases, hygiene and quality are maintained, at all cost. They go through an innovation planning for 3 days prior to the program as they plan to bring new and unique products that have the ability to attract the most number of customers.

But the most important of them all is the first hand experience of the real business world, the students get. A group of students from NSU YES pose as Mobile Court Agents who check the quality of the products that are brought and see if they are legal and they have the right to confiscate the products if any discrepancy is found. They also pose as goons to give the students a touch of reality of the business world.

The Evaluation Criteria

The course instructors evaluate the performances of the participants on various factors including leadership, service/product innovation, operation management, pre-event sales promotion, selling techniques, Customer relationship management, inventory management & so on.

Since, the marketing tools for this program are limited, per se, this works as a very important criteria for evaluation as they have to come up with innovative ideas for marketing their products that will not only make customers notice them but also visit their stalls in hopes of buying something.

Leadership is another criteria that is emphasized on. Every team has a leader whose responsibility is to make the entire operation run smoothly and manage all the coordinating factors while dealing with the stress of making customers happy.
Inventory management is important as well since stall owners bring their own products to sell and make those their brands. They are expected to offer proper pricing. They may want to implement a strong inventory management system to help them achieve this. By looking into related software like Sage 50, they will be able to see which would suit their management style better and utilize it for their stall if they do not have a system in place already.
Time and Cash management are two other very important factors because students invest their own money which is tk. 5000 and plan to gain a profit on that. All the members of the team must be equally responsible for their products for the team to work well. Since, the timing of the program is from 10 AM-5 PM, students must manage their time well, to get the most profit in that allocated time.
Customer Service and Value Proposition are two things that have been talked about since the introduction of Haat Bazar. Customers expect a certain level of service from the stall owners and as well as a certain quality of the product. The customers must feel satisfied with what they get. They must feel like they’re getting value for money. They must find the product unique and must not feel like the products are unaffordable. They must be behaved well with and must be valued.
This experience is basically a reality check provider. It helps them to gather knowledge about the world outside and how it works. The stall owners, so far have been able to work through the challenges and deliver, making the customers satisfied. It is an experience that teaches students how the different demands of the different customers are dealt with and how vicious and tough the business world can get. Through this, they can come face to face with the different challenges they may come across in the actual the actual condition of the world of entrepreneurs and can get ready for the actual experience.

Additional Information

From 2014 till date, 4 Haat Bazar programs have taken place:

1. 10^th of December, 2014, Fall’14.
2. 5^th of April, 2015, Spring’15.
3. 5^th of August, 2015, Summer’15.
4. 25^th of November, 2015, Fall’15.