You have had 15 years of experience in multinational and local companies. Could you detail your journey?
I started my career with ACI Consumer Brands, and I used to look after Savlon and the full range. I also worked for Tetley tea, as I worked as a Brand Developer. I also worked initially on the ACI Salt, as well as some other brands that launched later such as the Supershop Swapno & ACI Flour. From there, I went to Euro Cola and I worked for Globe Beverages and Globe Biscuits. Tiger, the energy drink was also re-launched during my time there and its market was splendid. After that, I shifted to Acme Food and Beverage where I handled Acme Juice and Drinking Water, and I also launched Acme Tea, Spices, and other new products. After that, I went to work for Real Estate Company BTI. Then I went for an training organized & sponsored by the state department of USA. It was called the Professional Change Program. I went to the University of Oklahoma, where I had an attachment with McKinney Partnership, which is one of the largest interior firms in the USA & also had a training in State Department of USA. After coming back from there, I went back again to study on entrepreneurship in 2015. During my stay in the US, I also worked for SUBWAY. After coming back from USA, I joined Keya Cosmetics as the Chief Operating Officer and I re-launched products like the Keya Beauty Soap, Detergent Powder, Bar Soap, Talcum Powder, Lip Gel etc. From there, I joined Anwar Group Industries, where I have been working as the Group Chief Marketing Officer. Here, I am looking after Steel, Cement, Polymer, Cement Sheet, Landmark, Automobiles, Furniture Businesses.
That is an impressive portfolio. It seems that you have mostly been working for FMCG. What are the changes and the trends in the last couple of years in Bangladesh? Two years ago, BCG published a report about the huge consumer base that nobody could see coming. What has your experience been like?
Basically, during the beginning stages of my career, the brands were mostly depended on trades or channels. By channels, I mean the distributors and dealers and by trade, I mean the retailers. The pull for a new brand used to work 8% cases. But as of now, the scenario has changed a lot. Now you’ll find that the factor is around 30% in Bangladesh. The trade has come down to 70%, which is a huge shift. The brands are being created and consumers are aware of it and they have choices to make. That’s a big change, I would say. This was regarding the consumers. If I talk about the retailers, in the earlier days of my career, it was more of a wholesale based distribution. We used to focus on wholesale, and distribute the products to the dealers through them. Now it is more of distributor & retail-based distribution. In earlier times, we didn’t find professional channels, but now they are highly professional, analytical and educated. In terms of standards, there has been a huge shift in this industry.
You played a pivotal role in many re-launchings. Tell us about the trends you have seen so far. What has been the biggest challenges while re-launching a product that has already been on the market but couldn’t gather enough hype? How do you overcome these challenges?
We should start from the bottom. We should figure out if we need to make any changes to the product in terms of quality, packaging, pricing, distribution or communication regarding our strategies, then we should do that. Last, but not least, the most important thing is the consumers. What are their needs? Find out the need gap and you can design the whole business process and value change accordingly. And you cater each one from the bottom. I think here, strategy plays a very vital role. If you make even a single mistake in your strategy, the whole process is gonna collapse. Therefore, I would say that the business analysis plays the major role here, whether it’s about launching a product or re-launching one.
Anwar Group has a very checkered and elaborate portfolio, from ICT to cars and even real estate. How do you maintain all this? How do you balance it out?
From the very beginning of my career, I have worked in brand development apart from looking after an existing brand. The pressure-taking is built-in, that doesn’t bother me much. Coming here, I found this to be the oldest group probably in the subcontinent being founded in 1834.
I had learned a lot while working with international brands, and while studying and working in the US. The work structure there is very systematic, and that helped me a lot. After joining Anwar Group, I tried to streamline the way things are done, in a more modern and systemic and methodical manner to ensure bringing out excellence. It’s important that our colleagues are well-aware of this vision and accommodate the changes that are going to be implemented. Henceforth, communicating the message to them in a timely manner was important. Initially, I focused on the big businesses like the steel, the cement, cement sheet and the polymer. After that, I focused on real estate, furniture, Automobiles etc. By this time, everything is pretty much methodically systematic and organized professionally. This is how I tried to manage things here, and I didn’t particularly find many challenges.
“As an industry and a category, our Anwar Ispat has tremendous potential. In Bangladesh, only 34% people have second homes. Two-thirds of the people don’t have second home. We are shifting from least developed country to developing country.”
Is there a particular product of the existing portfolio that excites you the most?
As an industry and a category, our Anwar Ispat has tremendous potential. In Bangladesh, only 34% of people have second homes. Two-thirds of the people don’t have second home. We are shifting from least developed country to a developing country. We have ambitions to become a developed country and there will be immense infrastructural need to be mitigated. Which is why, steel, cement, or polymer has huge potential here. Regarding cement sheets, it can be deemed revolutionary as it has changed the lives of many people. It is having a big impact is dairy poultry and hatcheries, where the cost has been reduced due to the sheet’s lowering the temperature. Cement sheets as a category lower the cost by 25% and enhance the productivity by 30% which means it has an over 50% impact on the business. I am very excited about this, as it can do wonders. Ever since our GDP has been exhibiting an upward trend, income has increased. We are being inclined to purchase from the good brands like Athena’s Furniture. Regarding cars, we had Ford earlier, as well as Volvo. As we all know, Ford is one of the largest selling brands, while Volvo is one of the safest cars in the world. We recently brought Peugeot from France, which is also outstanding. The feedback has surpassed our expectations. Ford is more of a mass brand, but Peugeot is more sophisticated to be for popular segment, while Volvo is the premium. So we have three brands for three different classes.
You mentioned how one of your missions was to make the business more process-driven. Internationally, more and more businesses are becoming data-driven and analytical. In market research and in case of data analysis, what kind of activities do you have right now?
I was professionally born and brought up with data. Throughout my entire career, I never worked without a research agency. Whatever we are doing here, all of it is based on data. I am trying to run this business the way I used to run an FMCG business. Though this business is not nearly as fast-moving as FMCG ones. I am trying to bring the same flavor here. That industry is way too big, detailed, analytical and methodical. I am just trying to implement the same thing in this kind of an industry, which as per as my knowledge goes, not many brands are doing. Not many companies are doing the things we are doing.
Can you give me an example of any of the cases or businesses that actually gave you an upper hand?
For all brands, the higher contributing area has a higher target and vice versa where we have improved a lot. I tried to find out the potential markets as per the industry. There may be markets where I’m not doing good but the market is big and has potential. For certain category, Barisal and Noakhali districts have a high potential. Studying those markets have helped us gain insights that could benefit the business hugely. We have started doing the same thing for all brands. We have studied every category, and we know which market has what kind of potential, and what opportunity gaps are there.
“Basically, during the beginning stages of my career, the brands were mostly depended on trades or channels. By channels, I mean the distributors and dealers and by trade, I mean the retailers. The pull for a new brand used to work 8% cases. But as of now, the scenario has changed a lot. Now you’ll find that the factor is around 30% in Bangladesh. The trade has come down to 70%, which is a huge shift.”
Many CMOs of Australia are thinking that they are still not capable of bringing growth in the company. According to them its the Chief Salesperson who can add to the disruptive growth of the company. Do you agree with this? What is the role of the CMO in contributing to the growth of a company?
When I was in America, I thought the same thing. However, that is only true for the mature market. It is not true for a developing country like ours. The market in terms of life cycle, it is actually in the introductory stage. It has to go through the trials and tribulations. For us, it is the truth. Secondly, when it comes to growth, the CMO has the role of giving a strategic input. Coming here, I had my own homework. I figured out how to make this process modern, analytical & methodical. We didn’t have any hiccups in sales, but we had growth. Until this year, we are growing at a rate of over 40%. The focus should be derived accordingly as per the market potential. Third of all, I tend to go by business as per profitability. Where I make more money, I give more time there. As a CMO, I spend time as per business attractiveness and set targets for the products accordingly. We focus on and push high margin products more.
What are the main challenges of a CMO in terms of things like paradigm shifts and digital media?
A Chief Marketing Officer works as a Chief Business Officer. From that point of view, the challenge I mostly face is ensuring profitability. This is because all the raw materials cost has increased by a lot, roughly 30%. We must revise the wages every year as well, as they have gone high as per the inflation rate, by 8% minimum up to 18%. The cost of transportation has increased as well, from 50% to 400%. For this, we really need a good support from the government. As we are a developing country, you have to patronize the manufacturing. You have to ensure the consistent power supply for this. We are paying for it every month. We also need to address the bureaucracies we face for starting a business and getting all the permissions. We have to address the logistical issues very seriously, especially those of which are associated with the transportation of goods. Timely and safe delivery of the product is not a matter of productivity but also shows how much committed we are to the services we offer. Without fixing your backward linkage, you simply cannot work on your forward linkage.
What advice do you have for the young students who want to build a career in marketing?
First of all, I have a little dissatisfaction regarding the current youth. During our time, we were very dedicated and serious about learning. The youth of today should be dedicated, and they should have an urge to deep-down study and learn. They should be more focused. They are also very fickle and need to be stable. They have to learn the process and then grow. Only then they can survive and go to the next stage. I would request the upcoming professionals to be serious about their studies and focus on practical practices along with theoretical learning. Just being focused and dedicated will not let them achieve the feat they want to. They must not forget that the sky’s the limit.
