On 27th April, Bangladesh Brand Forum (BBF) marked its 12-year anniversary with a grand celebration attended by business leaders and corporate professionals. At the ceremony, BBF recognized its well-wishers with honorary crests and expressed gratitude to its current and former employees who have inspired BBF to come this far.
BBF Founder Shariful Islam, Director Nazia Andaleeb Preema and Chief Advisor Professor Syed Ferhat Anwar spoke on the occassion. All of them believe that Bangladesh’s next phase of journey needs a big shift change during the era of 4th Industrial Revolution, blending human-centric thinking along with digital evolution.
At the 12-year celebration ceremony, all the keynote speakers of BBF Seminar 2019 were presented with extraordinary artworks of Prolific Visual Artist Nazia Andaleeb Preema, who is also the President of Women in Leadership and Founder of Bangladesh Creative Forum.
Starting in 2007, Bangladesh Brand Forum has opened up many positive facades of promoting knowledge, innovation, and creativity.
When brands were yet to fully realize the benefits of the wielding brand power, Bangladesh Brand Forum envisioned of transforming Bangladesh through applying Branding Ethos among local corporates, taking bold steps that would become norms a decade later. From recognizing advertisements of the country to awarding country’s most loved brands, BBF has been setting examples throughout its journey.
The impact of taking steps to inspire the brands has been amplified during the course of its expedition. When BBF started Commward in 2009, which is the short form of Communication Award, only 9 advertisements had received awards. In its 2018 edition of the award, a total of 85 works were awarded. Moreover, the signature crest of Best Brand Award has received nationwide recognition among general consumers with its appearance on product packaging of the awarded brands. Needless to say, BBF’s monthly magazine reaches the senior most corporate leaders and enthusiasts from different sectors and is considered one of the most premium magazines of the country.
Over the last 12 years, Bangladesh Brand Forum has brought 220+ global experts in the country, who shared knowledge across 35 seminars/summits. Moreover, the platform has directly engaged 35000+ professionals and business leaders. For the last 10 years, it has awarded the best brands of the country based on consumer research. Initiative like ‘Meet Bangladesh’ has helped promote Bangladesh in global platforms in a wider aspect. BBF is also the official representative of Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity and Spikes Asia in Bangladesh.
With the celebration of its 12-years journey, Bangladesh Brand Forum has set its course for the next decade as well. BBF wants to inspire multiple segments of our society through multi-dimensional engagements for enabling Bangladesh’s next phase of progress and inclusive growth. Hence, BBF has changed its motto from ‘Inspiring Brands in Bangladesh’ to ‘Inspiring the Nation’.
This year, along with the 8th iteration of Bangladesh Brand Forum Seminar, two other impactful engagements of its 12-years celebration have been the Future Academia Engagement, which brought leading academicians of the country together, and Long Horizon Dialogue where industry leaders shared insights on what could impact the country’s economy and society in near future.
In the coming years, BBF wants to benefit the industries by instilling leadership and other functional skills among the professionals. It has also strategized to empower the youth by providing the right skill training required. BBF plans to provide a platform to the youth where they can experiment, learn, and apply – to solve problem and create new opportunities.
INSPIRING WORDS FROM GLOBAL EXPERTS
“Bangladesh is one of our important chapters in Asia Marketing Federation. About Bangladesh Brand Forum, I was once speaking at a seminar by invitation of my friend Shariful Islam. I know that this forum is great because so many fresh ideas and so many bright prints about branding have been spoken in the forum. In the last 12 years I believe, there have been so many insights and conversations already happening in the Forum. As a marketing guy, I believe that brand is the core of marketing. I believe in PDB (Positioning, Differentiation, and Branding). A brand must be clearly positioned and the positioning must be fully supported by the differentiation. By having the solid positioning and differentiation of branding, we will have a very strong brand. Bangladesh is lucky to have Shariful Islam who has the courage to do this forum for the last 12 years. Please enjoy the forum but not only enjoy, learn something from the forum and hopefully after getting the insight you will really inspire the nation. Congratulations Bangladesh Brand Forum for completing 12 years.”
“This is a very special message because I want to compliment Shariful Islam and the team for an amazing job. I have stayed in Bangladesh and I am very conversant with your wonderful country. I have always felt that one thing which we lacked in Bangladesh is building the brand Bangladesh and telling a very cohesive story about the country. Bangladesh’s achievements exceed and are far higher than its image. And I think Shariful and the Bangladesh Brand Forum have done an amazing job over the last 12 years trying to correct it. The work is still not complete, this is something which should continue for many years to come. But I think I would like to, again, compliment you for an amazing job done. You have picked up the challenge. I remember Shariful talking to me when BBF was at its very nascent stage. You went ahead with your plans, with dreams in your eyes, with passion in your heart and have done an amazing job for the country. Today on the 12th anniversary, all of you should look back with a huge amount of pride for what a wonderful job you have done for your country. So, congratulations again and may God give you more power to strengthen the image of your wonderful country.”
“I would like to wish Bangladesh Brand Forum a great success on its anniversary. It’s a very simple fact that some companies in big countries make a difference. But when the companies from emerging markets are actually trying to change the public face both internally & externally and advancing the industry, that becomes a very significant step forward. So, congratulations to Shariful and everyone at Bangladesh Brand Forum. Keep going with the good work over the next ten years.”
“Indeed it is a great pleasure for me to share some thoughts for the 12th year anniversary of Bangladesh Brand Forum. It has evolved until 11th Brand Forum, from operation to strategic. Now, it is a combination of operational and strategic initiatives of marketing practices, not only in Bangladesh but also in Asia. I wish all the very best for 12th year anniversary of Bangladesh Brand Forum.”
LONG HORIZON DIALOGUE
Bangladesh Brand Forum has initiated a new dialogue series named ‘Long Horizon Dialogue’. The primary objective of the dialogue is to analyze the foreseeable aspects of business leadership, policy formulation, and academia.
Held on the 2nd of May this year, the first episode of Long Horizon Dialogue aimed at helping business leaders, entrepreneurs, policy makers, and academia to explore the possible challenges of the future and prepare for it. Addressing critical issues for the society, economy, and the nation as a whole, the dialogue presented a long-term lens to see how today’s decision will impact the future.
Shariful Islam, Founder & Managing Director of Bangladesh Brand Forum and Md. Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin, President, Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FBCCI) spoke at the event.
For the first episode of the dialogue series, three experts from world-renowned management consulting industry McKinsey & Company shared their valuable insights. The experts from McKinsey & Company were – Harsh Chhaparia, Partner; Suvojoy Sengupta, Partner; and Pinak Dattaray, Associate Partner.
RE-IMAGINING YOUR CHANNEL & CUSTOMER FOR BREAK-THROUGH GROWTH
The insightful session was conducted by Harsh Chhaparia, Partner, McKinsey & Company. During the session, he shed light on the concept of the cost of prediction that is going down with demand going up. According to him, people now prefer machines over human labor with the increased value of data. For understanding the needs of the end consumers, organizations are now trying to get closer to them. Harsh also stressed the importance of digital through which we can actually train people. Moreover, for re-imagining the channel and customer break-through growth, it’s time to demonstrate the product directly to the customer through direct sales channel, instead of depending on the dealer solely.
IMPACT OF DIGITAL AND ANALYTICS ON CAPITAL PROJECTS AND PROCESS INDUSTRIES
The session was conducted by Suvojoy Sengupta, Partner and Pinak Dattaray, Associate Partner of McKinsey & Company. In this session, they emphasized on the efficient use of the three “M” forces – Man, Machine & Material. They put emphasis on the timely completion of work along with the labor cost as equally important. They identified the under-utilization of critical machinery as a huge driver of cost. Since the change of mindsets in an organization is going to be very critical, both of them agreed on investing in digital literacy and capability at all levels.
LAUNCH OF BANGLADESH FAMILY BUSINESS FORUM
The first episode of Long Horizon Dialogue also marked the soft-launch of Bangladesh Family Business Forum, of which McKinsey & Company will be a knowledge partner.
Long Horizon Dialogue was an initiative of Bangladesh Brand Forum. Also, supporting the dialogue were: Knowledge Partner – McKinsey & Company and Official Carrier – Turkish Airlines.
