Mahtab Uddin Ahmed

When it comes to the Big 4, the corporate trust instincts set in for good reasons but is it time to question if such blind reliance is the best practice always?

I had just come out of a meeting with my friend who is a prominent banker and this very interesting conversation ensued when I told him that I am keen to help family businesses in Bangladesh with my knowledge and experience.

In my last job during the time between 2014 and 2016, the company performance was well below the mark, with 2016 being a serious disaster.

I used to have a positional big boss who was new to the job and hardly had knowledge of the industry or the multinational way of working. Every time, my team put up a proposal to him, he would look at others in the meeting instead of me while knowing all too well where the right level of knowledge was to be found.

A man piloting a hot air balloon discovers that he is hopelessly lost. He descends to a lower altitude and locates a man on the ground and shouts, “excuse me sir, can you tell me where I am?” The man below says, “yes, you are in a hot air balloon, about twenty feet above ground.”

After my 2002 performance review, I got the best performance rating. But my increment was negligible.

On my return from Australia recently, my friend Asif invited me to his office. He shuddered as he lowered his voice to a whisper to inform me,

When talking about business, a boss advises to focus on KYC (Know Your Customer) and when talking about career, I suggest to focus on KYB (Know Your Boss).

My journey to obesity started when I was introduced to the executive canteen of Unilever Bangladesh in Kalurghat, Chattogram, in 1993. My weight shot up by 15 kilogrammes within a span of six months despite my efforts to discipline myself.

During my childhood, I was quite accustomed to seeing my parents’ unhappy reaction to my somewhat consistent poor performance in school. There was very little I could do to fulfil their wishes as I was too busy mastering skills in sports, namely, football, cricket, badminton, swimming, chess and what not!

Patrick in the US recently quit his job and decided to do something new so that he can control his lifestyle.

For a not-so-good student like me, the academic notes of the top students in the class were like a gold mine in school days. Anyone who asked for such “notes” would get the daring look as if you are asking for their marks from the exam or something similar, let alone sharing them! Experiences like these are very common in our academic culture.

Debate in our culture, be it in the family or at work, is often considered “beyadobi”, particularly when one is challenging the authority of those who are senior by position or age. Debate can also be considered a taboo in many cultures and even in successful businesses.

It is a universal truth that criticising colleagues and bosses is basic to all work cultures although it hurts to admit it. A recent study found that the most talked about, rather criticised, in any organisation is the boss and its HR practices.

Business leaders are responsible for growing their business, by navigating through a myriad of disruptive forces that are constantly changing the business landscape.

For the first time in history, Bangladesh is experiencing a mass movement to save a forest – the largest mangrove in the world.