Mostafiz Uddin

During the course of the last few weeks, some of the world’s largest apparel retailers have announced the temporarily closure of stores across Europe, the USA, and beyond, due to the onset of the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.

Recently, I wrote about how coronavirus (COVID-19), which is now on the verge of becoming a global pandemic, has provided a wake-up call for Bangladesh and its RMG industry.

Never under-estimate the power of marketing and PR. At present, there is a huge disparity in the global apparel industry in terms of who is doing what with regard to sustainability. Some brands are doing a lot. Some brands are doing a little. Some brands are doing nothing at all.

News of another apparel factory tragedy on February 8, which claimed seven innocent lives, throws into sharp focus how much is still needed to be done in the global apparel industry to ensure the safety of its workers.

The corona-virus, which has already killed hundreds of people in China and is now making its way across the globe, will inevitably cause significant disruption to apparel supply chains during 2020. The question is, to what extent, for how long, and how will Bangladesh be impacted?

I want to look at the concept of digitisation in the context of the Bangladesh RMG industry. Particularly, I will argue that digitisation—taking none-digital formats of information and putting them into a digital format—should not be an end goal in itself.

In family businesses, the concept of “succession planning” is well known. It is the process of identifying and developing new leaders who can replace old leaders when they leave, retire or die.

"You can’t sell anything if you can’t tell anything,” stated Beth Comstock, former vice chair of General Electric, and I feel this is true when we consider the advances in sustainability made by the apparel industry of Bangladesh and the growing global awareness of the importance of the sustainability agenda.

We need to talk more in the workplace. We need to communicate better. We need to get things out in the open, to air grievances, share our hopes, fears and concerns and, where appropriate, ideas, aspirations and goals for the future.

"Find the right price for an irresistible offer, which, by the way, isn’t necessarily the lower price.” So stated W. Chan Kim, Professor of Strategy and Management at INSEAD, one of the world’s leading and largest graduate business schools.

In recent months, we’ve seen more negative press in international newspapers and journals about the apparel industry of Bangladesh.

We hear a lot about the concept of sustainability from an environmental and social standpoint. But what about sustainable business? Is the current customer-supplier model sustainable in the long term with respect to the global apparel industry?

It is widely agreed that boosting efficiency is vital to the long-term health and well-being of Bangladesh’s RMG industry.

The world is a frightening place right now. In the past few weeks we have seen out of control bushfires ravaging huge parts of Australia, wrecking land and homes and killing many people and animals in the process.

From a sustainability perspective, the global apparel industry changed quite markedly in 2019.

The year 2019 was a year of highs and lows for Bangladesh’s RMG sector. On balance, it was a year of positivity. However, it would be naïve to ignore the fact that things were not all plain sailing and that there is a great deal of work to be done as we enter the new decade.

have recently written articles focusing on two of Bangladesh’s competitors in the global apparel sourcing industry: Vietnam and, to a lesser extent, Ethiopia. I believe it is healthy to discuss the competition and hopefully all these countries can together spur each other onto greater things.

If we were to describe the global garment and textile industry as a three-horse race, China would be out in front with two other horses fast closing in.

There is much talk of Ethiopia as the next “go to” apparel sourcing location right now, but how much is hearsay and how much should the Bangladesh Ready-Made Garment (RMG) industry fear this new rival needs scrutiny.

“Change will not come if we wait for some other person, or if we wait for some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”